We got home LATE last night from L.A. It went really well. Everyone decided that wearing ties were out as that was not him... (So we returning the one I bought last week...
This was on the front page of the local newspaper.... We all went to the run Sunday (I fully understand getting up at 4AM to go fishing, but to run ??)
Win Freeman, 61, died Wednesday; his teammates will run for him in Sunday's Long Beach marathon.
By Karen Robes, Staff writer
Article Launched: 10/11/2007 09:57:24 PM PDT
Members of A Running Experience Club observe a moment of silence for the club's vice president, local marathoner Win Freeman, who died Wednesday at the age of 61. (Stephen Carr / Press-Telegram)LONG BEACH - If anyone knew how to make long-distance running fun, it was Win Freeman.
The Long Beach resident once spurred a handful of people to run six half-marathons in six months. He often organized weekly training runs on the dreadfully steep Signal Hill, offering the subsequent jaunt to Joe Jost's for "the coldest beer" as the reward.
On Sunday, Win Freeman will be the reason why dozens of runners will take part in the annual Long Beach marathon.
Members of his running group, A Running Experience Club, will dedicate the marathon to Win, who died Wednesday of esophageal cancer at the age of 61.
About a week after every Long Beach International City Bank Marathon, Win hosted a "Post Marathon Lying Contest," where half- and full-marathon runners would tell great tales of their racing.
Though he participated in dozens of races over the years - including 16 half-marathons in 2006, Win hardly won anything in the sense of medals and ribbons.
Friendships. Personal bests. Family traditions. Those were the wins that counted, the things that motivated him to pull on his running shoes and head out the door.
On Sunday, his fellow runners will be wearing his picture on their T-shirts
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and remembering the energetic man with the gray hair and an easy smile who made running fun.
"Win will be dearly missed and it will be emotionally hard running the International Long Beach half-marathon without him," said friend and fellow runner Colleen Shea.
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Florida, Win moved to Long Beach 25 years ago to lead a technology company. He started running in 1990, at the age of 45, when he and his wife, Marsha, entered a 5K/10K in Seal Beach.
Win wrote about that experience in the club's newsletter: "We trained for the 5K by running a couple miles a few times, but at the last second we went over to the 10K starting line. Mistake! Ha."
Part of his motivation for running, he wrote, was his father.
"I watched my father die at a very young age after three heart attacks. I never saw him exercise, however he smoked 2-plus packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I really think people didn't know better 30 years ago."
Win made running part of his life. He traveled to run in races and joined running clubs. His favorite, the 15K Jacksonville River run, was a family tradition. (It was also the last race he took part in before he was diagnosed with cancer in June.)
"We always gave him a hard time because he'd be running and running and I always told him, `Win, you could ride a bike' or `This is what they made cars for. You don't have to do this."' said his sister, Gail. "He was so proud."
Win met up with Todd Rose, club president, and found camaraderie in the running group. He later served as its vice president.
"He loved pushing himself, always trying to get to his next personal best," Rose said. "He never let us settle into the status quo. He always tried to push himself and through that inspired others to push themselves as well."
And he wasn't shy about expressing how he felt about marathons.
"I'm still doing a couple a year and really hate my life starting about mile 22," he wrote in 2005. "My wife says I'm an idiot for doing them. I think she's right."
A broken arm and a neck problem halted his running, but Win continued to keep up his fitness with biking. His doctor was about to clear him to run when his wife noticed a protrusion in his chest in June. It was cancer.
When Win's family found out about the club's tribute to him, they cried.
"I'm just so thankful, so happy that they're doing it," Marsha said. "He will be there with them. I know it would have made him so happy."
Win is survived by his wife of 18 years, Marsha, daughter Niki, son Winslow, brother Charles, sister Gail, mother Beverly, two grandchildren and loved ones.
