Letter from Marathon Joe: I

Dec 8, 2001

Letter from Marathon Joe: I am so confuased. I can’t remember if I am acting my age. I kind of remember my age, but I sometimes am not sure. I just finished spending a delightful week with my mother in Arizona. She ran me around the town, made me sit on a bench in the freezintg air, with her and others, at the rim of the grand Canyon at 3 am to watch meteors. She took me to see Harry potter; which I loved. (All of us kids had those flying broomsticks long before HP got his. We used them to fly along the side of the White’s and the Vallee’s back yard fences, dodging Dad;s raspberry bushes and his barren Peach Tree. We even took our broomsticks into the dark underporch spider webbbed junk room under the porch. HP and his friends never faced something as fearsome as that dark room with ferocious mice, spiders, daddy long legs, and other unnamed creatures. All just to get at the back of the room where some bicycle had been stored during the winter.)

Anyway, I am trying to act my age, but my mom looks so good, acts so sprightly and is so much fun to be with, that I can’t be 60, so don’t try and change my mind. I must be something else; but what?

Anyway I stopped trying to figure it out. For the past 8 months I have been running at least 4 miles each day for 5 days a week and between 12 and 16 miles on Sundays. I knocked off the 8 pounds tha made me a slow runner (dream on about the ‘slow’) I have worked out at the 24 hour fitness and brought a lot of good vibes to the 24 year old beauties of both sexes who think life ends at 30. The sight of me and they immediately reprogram their ‘life -joy expectators’ for another 30 years. And occasionally I look pretty good pushing those machines up to the limit of 40, 50 and sometimes 100 pounds. Ok my limit, the machines go to 300 pounds and I occasionally have to switch it down after following a big football or weightlifting neighbor.

Anyway, all of this delightful vebage and occasionally mis-spellings is my way of saying that tomorrow at 3:30 am I awake, put on my flower running uniform, lace up my shoes and head to the starting line of the Honolulu marathon. I am running in my 10th marathon and I will finish. That is the goal. It wont be as much fun as when I ran with Anton, Nick, matt and brother Terry, but I will do it. As usual chirping like a magpie and having the time of my life. If only I knew how old I really am?

Joe Zuiker ( the child formerly known as Goggles)

P.S. I am running this one for the honor and memory of Frank the Beachcomber and his bride. A true Marathon Man and a true Lady….

Anton Zuiker ☄