Woods and Lakes Run then...

For maybe twenty years, we've been associated with our local annual 10 K race, the Woods and Lakes Run. That goes back before cancer, before children.
Except for the year that Laura was diagnosed, we always helped as race workers. The girls were part of it from a young age. With the 4th Saturday of April this weekend, it's time for the Woods and Lakes Run again. Once more I'll remember how Laura used to help at the water station with Susan all those years and how we enjoyed the picnic for the helpers afterwards on the shores of Crystal Lake.

Every year, about the second week of April or so, the phone would ring in the evening around 8 or 8:30. I always knew who was calling. It would be Steve Pottash the race director confirming our participation running the water station and the Tourne volunteers. This year Steve didn't call. For last September Steve had died. Steve the fitness trainer and perennial cyclist had made an appointment with a cardiologist but it wasn't soon enough. Steve will be remembered this Saturday at the Woods and Lakes run.

Photos: Susan and Laura at their water station post; after the race, Susan (left) and Laura, with bag of popcorn, on the shore of Crystal Lake.