Apple run is memory lane

By Linda Hartigan

I took a walk down memory lane on Sunday. In fact, I went to the Oak Harbor Apple Run to watch the runners. However, the three generations of runners I hoped to see became two as Rick Artiaga's knee difficulty prevents any serious running. He did run with grandson, Kendrick Pfaff, in the Youth run. I missed that race.

I saw son-in-law Chris Pfaff start and finish his first run in nineteen years. Chris and my son, Jake, have been friends since Junior High. They both ran cross-country. I greatly enjoyed catching up with Chris, his wife Jodi and seeing Kendrick and sister Maddy.

I also saw the Schulz family. All five children and dad, Walter, attended the race. Sarah who ran cross-country in high school got her siblings interested in returning to Oak Harbor for this run. She was not able to participate due to a sore tendon.

However, she got them all to the race! I loved hearing about the kids and what they are doing as adults. Sarah is now living in the Columbus area. She is a registered nurse. I don't think I met her husband. But I did see her daughter, now 12 and almost as tall as mom. Sarah, Jake and Chris Pfaff are all members of the same class of 1993.

Rachel, class of 1995, completed the race with a time of 26:40. She also lives in the Columbus area and told me she is a mechanical engineer. However, her very proud-of-his-wife husband told me she is Director of Mechanical Engineering at Burgess and Niple.

As we waited for oldest sibling, Anne, to complete the race I met her husband, Simon Dicker. Earlier the kids told me Simon decided at the very last minute to run. He completed the race first in his age group at 21:09. I did learn, although he did not train for the race Simon does bike the twenty mile round trip to work every day. He is an astro-physicist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I think this Englishman is the first astro-physicist and graduate of Cambridge I have ever met. Simon was first in his age group!

Anne completed the race almost a minute ahead of what the family expected.

Neither Ben nor Joe ran but they cheered for family members.

All the siblings were extremely proud of each other's accomplishments. I may have missed some comments along the way. It was great listening to the back and forth banter of relatives. Sarah reminded me of some other classmates. She was thrilled when Gina Warnke was the first woman to complete the race. She referred to her as Gina Whiting. When I told Sarah Gina now coaches the girls' cross country team, she was thrilled and shared some of her memories of running on the same team with Gina during their high school days.

I watched as Kelly (Miller) Wagner now of Charlestown, Indiana and a mother of six completed the race in 23:56. She was first in her age group. I also saw Becky (Adams) Hart cross the finish line. Her time of 26:52 was the fastest in her age group.

However, in reading over the results, I see I missed Tiffany Hernandez. I think she is the former Tiffany Wahl now of California and a good friend of my daughter's when they were in Middle School. I missed both Hallett sisters during the race and after. I did not see Curt Borjas, Collin Tong or Angie Rahm at all. How did I miss all these people, I do not know.

On Sunday, I will watch my daughter run her first half-marathon. She may decide this is "the first, last, one and only" or only the beginning. Either way we hope to see her start and finish. But with my record of missing folks who knows.