From Coastin' newsletter, May 2000 ...

For all you runners out there, my brother Joe recently sent me this note about his 7th grade daughter Jamie’s first experience with competitive running. Also mentioned in the story is his wife Jeri.  -John Price newsletter editor.

“For Aspiring Runners” submitted by Joe Price
Jamie desperately wanted to make the track team. She has always enjoyed running and is pretty fast. She tried out for the Jr. High squad and did not make it. We gave her the speech about she shouldn’t expect much if she never practiced and applied herself. She was heartbroken…Jeri took her out shopping to make her feel better. The next week track practice started and the track coach wanted to know where Jamie was. She had left Jamie’s name off the list…Needless to say that Jamie was now ecstatic since she was on the team!

They had their first meet last night and it was with three teams. Jamie ran the 800 meters – two trips around the track. The first ¾ trip around the track she was in the middle of the pack of nine runners. The she started passing people, and passing, and passing. By the time she got on the front straight-away (in front of us) she was leading and had a pretty determined look on her face. In several of the events prior to hers, many of the leaders of the races had gotten off to good starts and then faded away only to be passed by others at the end. But Jamie kept up her pace and just kept building her lead. By the time she finished, she probably had about a 50-60 meter lead on the 2nd place runner. Everyone in the stands was going pretty crazy with her finish and especially all of us. Lester and Ann (Jamie’s grandparents) were able to come see her s well so she had a good audience.