KEEPING PACE
The Official Newsletter of The Robins Pacers
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KEEPING PACE The Official Newsletter of The Robins Pacers |
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| April 1999 | http://www.hom.net/~pchamp/Robins_Pacers.htm | Warner Robins, GA |
PACER RACE RESULTS Run
for Missions Mitch
Sinyard 20:14 3rd AG Albany
1/2 Marathon Trent Miller 1:59:44 Leprechaun
Road Race Carl
Perazzola 21:51 3rd AG 10K Mitch
Sinyard 40:12 PR Cherry
Blossom 5K Mitch
Sinyard 20:28 3rd AG Cooper
River Bridge Run Glen
McCardle 51:12 |
Upcoming Races Apr
3rd - Dogwood Festival 5K, Perry - 8:30 am (Carroll &
Ball Streets)
Don't miss the Harness Horse Festival and Spring Pig Ribbin' Cook Off, April 16th-17th Apr
17th - Macon Symphony Allegro Run 8K - (Application
attached)
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Museum of Aviation Races On March 25th,
John Hunter, Charlene Earles, Glen McCardle, Marv
Champion, and Janice Westmoreland met with General Scott
and the Museum staff to award the proceeds from the 1998
and 1999 races. The Museum had arranged a nice gathering
complete with refreshments. We presented the Museum a
check for $4000. Needless to say, they was very
appreciative! The Pacers described many of the
compliments we received from runners who were pleased not
only with the course they ran on Base, but also with the
Museum and its exhibits.
Happy Easter!! |
"Just Don't Do It" by Frank Shaffer Twenty or so years ago when I wasn't quite as smart and civic minded as I am today, a representative from Nike had some hair-brain idea to sponsor me as a long distance runner. After talking it over with my team of advisors, Larry, Curly and Me, I declined their copious offer. As I stated I wasn't the brightest light on the back porch. A few years later another Nike representative approached me and offered me a contract to be the first kid on my block to run with the new Nike "Air" shoes. Again I refused, not because I was stupid or anything like that. Instead I didn't care much for their design of having a see-through window of air on my heel, and being a heel striker I figured they (Nike) would get sick of furnishing me shoes every two weeks. Remember this is coming from the same guy who put all his money on the "Pet Rock". You see when I was a 12 years old my dad brought me a pair of shoes that had lighting bolts on the side and all the kids made fun of them. That Nike logo reminded me of those two dollars shoes. Besides, at the same time Brooks wanted me to run for them and they offered me a better deal--- free food after every race. And it seems Nike already had one jock wearing their shoes, some guy with the initials M.J. I never looked back on that decision until a few weeks ago when I read a short article in a newspaper about Nike having a problem with their manufacturing plant in Vietnam. I did a double take. I never fathomed they had a plant in Vietnam. I remembered Vietnam 'cause that's where I spent my summer vacation after I graduated from high school. The same place that so many good men and women died, defending the rights of companies like Nike to move in, take up shop, pay young women $42 dollars a month (20 cents per hour) so I can run and jump like Mike. Talk about your ugly American. Back in the 1980's, Nike moved their plant from the U.S. to the Pacific Rim, and I understood that. After all they were paying very high labor cost of $8 to $11 dollars an hour to over 65,000 workers and only charging $50 to $100 for a pair of shoes, and they are in business to make a profit. Not making enough profit however, they learned that workers in Indonesia would do the same job, plus work 10 non-union hours a day for a mere $2.60 per day. But did the price of their shoes go down? Not hardly. Now I'm not telling you to go out and boycott Nike, 'cause most running shoes aren't made in the United States anyhow and if you get right down to it, not much is. But in order for companies like Nike to survive they have to find cheap labor and charge high prices to the masses of minimum wage workers who purchase their product. That's how they pay athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and others like them enormous sums of money to push their wares. The night before the 1986 Berlin Marathon, Hitachi offered me $200 dollars just to wear a hat with their name on it during the race. A far cry from what Jordan and Woods got but money never the less. Since I?ve always worn a hat when I ran, due to a slight hair problem (lack of it) I had no problem taking their money. Hey for $200 I would have run with bananas under my arm pits, but Chichita already had a dancing banana on their pay roll. So, who's to blame? Is it the jock, the manufacturer or even the sports agent? Partially, but a lot of the blame falls directly on the consumer, which unfortunately is you and me. So what's the answer? I'm sorry, but I'm at a loss to say. I would like to say I'll never buy another Nike product again, but let?s be realist. Nike sells more running apparel than all the other manufactures combined. But I will shop around more and look for the American label. If you want to learn about Nike and other American companies using controversial labor, go to your search vehicle on the Internet and type "Nike Boycott". |
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| Last weekend, Glen
McCardle, Johnny Westmoreland, Charlene Earles, Nancy and
Steve Rosenberg, and Mike and Caryl Deems ran in the
Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC. I can say that
this was, hands down, the largest race I have every
participated in. There were 13,562 runners and over
14,000 walkers. We had to be at the starting line one
hour before the start of the race, and it was cold that
morning! But they had music to entertain us so time went
by quickly. We heard a girl just 14 years old who sounded
a lot like LeAnn Rimes. And, of course, there was the
traditional wait in the bathroom line that took about 30
minutes! By 8 am, we were ready to run, squeezed in among several thousand of our new close friends. The gun went off and we...stood there. We didn?t actually move for several minutes. The race clock was on about 5 minutes when we finally passed under the starting line. As you might guess, this was not the kind of race in which you try to compete. However, Glen gave it a good try. He was only a few minutes behind the winner. Glen finished at 51:12 and the winner, Lazarus Nyakeraka of Kenya, at 28:40. But let?s be fair. All those other people fought to get in the front of the line ahead of the rest of us at the start of the race. We never had a chance! When I wasn?t watching to keep from stepping on someone?s feet, I did notice several interesting things going on around me while I ran. There were the two men dressed in Superman suits (yes, grown men in tights); the man running with the ?Cat in the Hat? hat on; the gentleman who passed us wearing the t-shirt that read ?You have just been passed by Grandpa Joe?; and the five police boats circling in the water below the bridge waiting to catch any unfortunate runners who might get bumped over the rail. (That?s the point where I moved to the center of the bridge.) The bridge had an elevation of 150 feet and you had to run it twice, because there were actually two sections of the bridge. At one point, all the feet pounding caused the bridge to feel like it was moving under your feet. A truly awesome feeling! Anyway, we all made it to the finish line and had a great time getting there. And it wasn?t just the race that was fun. We all met at a restaurant called California Dreaming the night before. The food and fellowship were great. Then Saturday afternoon, Janice saved Johnny a lot of money by finding good sales in the old Market Street area. Mike and I visited some of the local historic sites and finished the day with some very good seafood. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. And the best thing is - they?ll have another one next year. We hope to have more Pacers with us next year. Looking forward to it! Caryl Please send race results and other info to me at Caryl_Deems@pap.state.ga.us or (912)-956-2534 |
