THE GRAND MASTERS

Those of you who participate in the running community know that age groups mark milestones in one's life 😁  Generally races have age divisions in groups of 5 years, e.g. 20-24, 25-29, etc. and thus it is perceived as an advantage to be at the young end of the age group.  For example, when you turn 35, you magically move from being the oldest person in your age group to being the youngest!  Then, once you hit forty, you are still in the 5 year bracket of 40-44, but additionally you are now a Masters Runner.  There are a whole set of records for runners over 40, kind of an acknowledgement the these old farts are still pretty fast but not nearly as fast the younger folks.  Then at age 50, one becomes a Grand Master! So, in Colorado Springs, we had a small group of fellows that dubbed ourselves the Grand Masters - we got some jackets and a few other self-identifiers, but mainly had a grand time running and hanging out together.  Here's a group photo of our motley crew, previously posted here:

The Grand Masters

Luis Lowe [seated]

Bob McAndrews, Yours Truly, Jim Brummage, Ron Wisner, Randy Kunkel

[At this point in time future Grand Master Doug Laufer was too young!]

Recently Randy Kunkel passed along a couple more pictures of the crew out on a run in the Broadmoor Area of Colorado Springs

Luis Lowe [front]

Doug Laufer [lower middle]

Jim Brummage, Yours Truly, Ron Wisner, Randy Kunkel

Ron must have been the photographer for this one.

As some of you know, Ron departed this life on May 21, 2010,

and I wrote about it here. We all still miss him very much.