John "Nooch" Newman ('55) sent a note last week with severa observations on athletes then and now.

 Around 1980, after competing in the corporate cup hosted by Stanford I was visiting a business friend in Saucilito.  I was having dinner with Bob and meeting his much younger, luscious and amorous new wife.  The way I was greeted did not make me feel good about their prospects but I digress.  While lounging in their hot tub I was looking at the local paper and saw that one Nik Epanchin had won a local masters marathon in around 2:35 as I recall.  Now Marin county is a long way from Sea Cliff but how many Nik Epanchins can there be and I knew had been a strong runner at SCHS and Colgate.  So I found him in the local directory, gave a call and asked is this the Nik Epanchin from Sea Cliff.  This felt a little like the times when an Indian statistician named Suhkindu Nath would call me and say: "this is Suhkindu speaking" and I would say "Suhkindu who?" 

I identified myself by name and perhaps Nooch as well.  Nik invited me over right away.  I explained I was with a friend for the evening and he suggested meeting for a run around noon in San Fransisco the next day.  Between world travel for Bechtel, being a family man and marathoning/triathaloning competitively, time management was an essential part of Nik's life.  He was rotating a swim or bike ride in the morning where possible and then go for what I recall was around an 8 mile run during his lunch hour.  It was a nice addition to my corporate cup experience.  I hope you are well Nik. 

Incidentally I recently returned from the NCAA T+F meet and see Dave Cadiz [outstanding half mile runner in the class of '54] each winter.  He lives less than half a mile from my oldest son Gordon in Kailua.  Gordon ran for Montana.  The only time I was able to see him run in college was at the Twilight Invitational in Madison where he ran 3:48:85 for the 1500.  One of his fastest times but worst finishes because of the strength of the field.