The Way I See It

October 1990
NCO Leadership School

looking at the world through rainbow-colored glasses>>>

I went to Travis Air Force Base just outside of San Francisco for a month to attend Non-Commisioned Officer Leadership School. A month long all-paid trip to California...oh...hurt me.

The first weekend I drove out to San Francisco, and on the second, quite by accident, while looking for some good mountain roads to ride, I stumbled upon Lake Tahoe. I was stunned by the beauty of the area and years later tried to move there. I rode my bicycle up the Kingsbury Grade, over Daggett Pass, at 7400 feet and on the backside of the pass I snapped these two shots. You can see the road climbing the side.

Kingsbury Grade and Lake Tahoe from the air>>>

Kingsburg grade, courtesy of http://unrnet.seismo.unr.edu/Aerials/Kingsbury-Grade.jpg

Leadership school was fun. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. We did class runs during the course of the school for fitness. I had just run a 6:56 1 1/2 mile at Fairchild Air Force Base a month earlier so I wasn't hungry to set any records, but there was this Navy guy in the class who thought himself a hot runner. I couldn't resist messing with him
In the first run I was wearing my church clothes over my shorts to warm up but was so comfortable I ended up running in them. I held back and I think the time the Navy guy ran was in the low 8's or something. I would run half the run with the slower runners and then use the second half to make up time and cross the line right behind him.
On the second run I passed him too fast and accidentally came across the line first. No one even noticed (I'm pretty invisible).
Third run, I did the same thing...stayed back and then tried to make up 500 feet or so. I was trying to build sprinting power but didn't want the pressure of being expected to win. After class I'd practice on the course. It was gravel and went up and down and was a twisty course. During practice I hung onto trees to keep my footing on corners.
The last run was the day before graduation. He was ready to tear up the course, and the race started on an uphill. We hit the first hill and I sprinted away, and to his surprise kept pulling away. I beat him by 32 seconds (it was his fastest 1 1/2 mile)and ran it in 7 minutes flat. I didn't want to embarrass him but apparently I did. He kept shaking his head and said,"I was running as hard as I could and he kept pulling away" Poor guy...
Then I drove 16 hours back to Spokane. On the way back I visited Greg LeMond's old house.