Marriage Proposals, Beer Commercials, & Oreo Cookies

A few bucks and a Salvation Army store and suddenly we're ready to guest star in a video of Daryl Hall & John Oates' "Private Eyes"!

Have you ever “Oreo-ed” someone?

Never even heard of it? I’m not surprised. It was something I heard about when I started my junior year of college, just having transferred to Western Oregon State. The idea is that you twist apart the two cookie sections so that you can use the crème filling as “glue” to stick to a window and craft a message.

Don’t ask me why, but somewhere in the back of my then limited mind, I had a bizarre notion that the way to the heart of a certain girl I was crushing on was leaving a high calorie cookie message on the living room window of her apartment. Of course, such a romantic gesture needed to be accomplished in the wee hours of the morning so that she would be appropriately surprised a few hours later.

It should come as no surprise that this young woman failed to be swept off her feet by my romantic gestures. (Actually, I’m not sure I even achieved “time of day” status with her.) But such absurd fun came to signify my first season of Cross Country at WOSC.

Becoming A Wolf!

Just as I was more than glad to trade out the green stripes of Umpqua Community College for the more appealing red, gray and black of my new school, I was equally thrilled to exchange mascots from that rather dorky Timberman to the more impressive Wolf.

What I wouldn't give to still have that UCC hoodie!

But those first few weeks of cross-country practice amply demonstrated that such a transition would not be easy. Having had a couple minor non-running surgeries a few weeks before the move, my conditioning wasn’t exactly where I would have wanted it. Combine that with my lack of speed and it makes sense that I trailed the dozen or so runners on our 800 meter practice intervals.

Still, I wasn’t overly worried. One, I knew that I was not a “practice warrior.” I’d had more than enough races to know that I always ran much faster in a meet than regular workouts. But that crabby older guy with the fishing hat who said he was our coach knew none of that. It was particularly galling when Coach Don Spinas asked me point blank if I was there to be on the team or just hanging around. Have to say that I’m still a bit surprised with my moxie in telling him that I’d be fine once we had our first meet.

What made all of this worthwhile were the guys I was training with. Other than a guy I’d chatted with the previous cross-country season, I didn’t know anyone. To my relief, I wasn’t the only “new kid on the block.” Not that it mattered. Everyone one of us immediately got along. The only one that was hard to figure out was a dark-haired, really fast guy. But I’ll get to him in a bit.

Anyway, unlike community college where we went our separate ways after practice, since we all lived near one another, we started hanging together. To my absolute delight, I was actually making new friends!

Before my hair turned gray!

Tastes Great! Less Filling!

Coach Spinas had a simple, but highly effective training regime. Hard day. Easy day. And by “easy day,” that meant a 5 mile run as a team. Although by this point, we’d thinned down to seven men, Coach still wanted us going slow enough to stay together. He also wanted the pace eased back enough for conversation. Another good way for all of us to bond.

I bring this up to share a fun story. There was a lovely girl on our women’s team with the most “singsong” voice I’d ever heard. Anyway, we’re out on this run, going past some farm field when I took it upon myself to talk about a Miller Lite Beer commercial with she and the guy I’d met the previous year. I mimicked his voice for the “taste great” and did a doggone good impression of that kind young woman reciting the “less filling.”

My impromptu comedy routine proved enough of a hit that the poor guy laughed so hard he rolled over into a grassy ditch.

I’d simply never had so much fun with any team I’d been on before.

As for the Running…

As it turned out, come race day, I did indeed find that extra gear, coming in third for our team. Although no threat either of our top two runners, I maintained that third position for the entire season. Even better. We had several of our later meets take place on hilly courses. While not every Willamette Valley runner experiences hills in their area, UCC had a steep hill just walking up to their track. As a result, that terrain gave me an even better opportunity to earn my keep. And finally secure some praise from Coach Spinas.

What turned out to be our final race of the season where I was actually chasing someone with a Spider-Man decal on their face.

Meet Dr. Z

Like I said before, the most enigmatic member of the team was our top guy named Frank. He was a very determined runner who also drove a guaranteed to catch the eye of any girl in three counties black Z-28 with a “Dr. Z” license plate. Although I actually beat him at the State Cross Country meet our senior year in high school, by this time, I could barely stay in his zip code.

Frank was an incredibly hard-working runner who gave every iota of energy into every race and speed workout. Despite his amazing talent, Frank was not cocky. But it took longer to get to know him than everyone else. I have to add that most of that’s on me simply because I found his talent rather intimidating.

But once I got to know him, Frank proved to be a thoroughly delightful individual who could be hilarious, dead serious and an incredible partier - all at the drop of a hat! I’m also honored to say that he’s someone who’s remained a dear friend to this day.

Post Season Proposal

Although that season ended on a rather bizarre note with Coach Spinas keeping us out of the District Meet due to heavy winds, the friendships we forged continued with us spending time together away from the track.

Case in point was a Saturday afternoon at Silver Creek Falls, a beautiful park about an hour from campus. Our group included our top woman runner - someone as serious as she was talented. A deeply religious and caring individual.

I know there's a trail around here somewhere!

Admirable personality aspects that I simply could not leave alone.

As we stood on a platform overlooking a stunning waterfall beneath us, I started to climb the metal railings with the proclamation, “Marry me or I’ll jump!”

It was the loudest I’d ever heard her laugh. Of course, that came after she said, “Go ahead and jump!”

Final Thoughts

I look back on my junior year in high school as my most important cross-country season because that was when I started taking running seriously. That decision opened doors in my life I would have never otherwise realized. But if that’s the case, then this season is close second because on the wonderful friendships developed during those months and that still remain as strong of friendships today.

What about you? It’d be great to learn about any similar experiences you’ve had. Feel free to share them in the comments below.

And thanks for reading the blog!

Our 1981 Western Oregon State Cross-Country team! My frown is because I just realized I had a midterm that next morning that I still had to study for!