Remembering Paul Reese

The Sacramento Bee had a great article this morning on an icon of the Sacramento running community named Paul Reese. In the early 1970s I first met Paul at the founding of the largest club in the area - the Buffalo Chips (I was the second president or "high dunger" of the group.) The Bee quoted Paul's idea of a flat race (one which had equal up and down components) and indeed one of the first races I met him at was in Lake Wildwood. I was conned into running it because it only had a couple of hills - turned out that the net was not large but the increments of up and down were.

What has struck me several times about my memories of Paul was how low key he was. At the time that I started running (which was well after him) it was still pretty primative. Gatorade had not been invented. Shoes were not "engineered." I remember in one 50 miler having a long discussion with Paul about the appropriate food and drink to consume along the way. I favored a concoction which had lemon juice, tomato juice, honey and aspirin in it. But we would trade tips. There was an almost pioneer spirit in the process.

When Paul turned 65 he wanted to run the Western States 100 under 24 hours. So a group of us agreed to pace him through the race. The picture above is of the finish line with Paul the one listing to the left. He carried a fanny pack to run between the mandatory rest stations which carried his false teeth - they were just too "damned much trouble" to have in between the stations.

Paul started a race called the Pepsi 20 - it was before the days of marathons and was normally run around the time of Thanksgiving Weekend. He had a strict rule - a T-shirt to anyone who broke 2 hours. That was about it. There was some free soda but no big prizes. The shirt was among the proudest parts of my running attire (I think I eventually got 2). The Pepsi had all the characteristics of a local race. The first one was to go from Burbank High School (where Paul taught) to Woodland and was won by a guy who had the good sense to run about a mile out of his way. When the lead pack got to the crossing of the river, the bridge they were supposed to use was up - one guy figured out that he could go up the road a bit to another bridge cross and then get back on the course. He did that and beat everyone else. When I was running the Pepsi it was held out in the country roads near Clarksburg. Pepsi offered some prizes but this was not a fancy event - it was for runners. When Paul eventually turned the management of the race over to another person, that person went out and got sponsors and other things and the race lost its character.

Paul also planned the inaugural Lake Tahoe Run in 1976. That race started in Tahoe City and did one lap around the lake. (72 1/2 miles) Paul had a devilish sense of humor so right at the start (at 6 AM) he said to all of us, be sure not to look to your left (to see the lake). I remember at about mid-day on the Nevada side looking back across the lake to see Tahoe City almost a marathon away and starting a hill of immense proportions (another flat course) and thinking - how swell. Only Paul would have called that event a "run."

He did some other stunts - at one point almost Forest Gump like running across the country in 124 days. He did some of the other big races around the world including the South African Comrades Marathon (actually about two marathons) and he also mapped a couple of the big 50 mile races in the Sacramento area. My first 50 miler was from Jackson to Sacramento. (Paul would have called that one a downhill race.) He organized that course. At about 30 miles into the race (I had never gone more than a marathon at that point) my wife thought I was looking a bit gray and she asked my brother who was pacing me - we should get him to quit - to which my brother said - "I've never seen him quit but you could try." There were two keys to all of Paul's races - first there was the challenge and then there was the community. Even after I dropped out of competitive running he enticed me into a couple of his events planned in the foothills - inevitably these courses were laid out with one or two of his buddies. (often George Billingsley and Hal Stainbrook)

Paul died in 2004 at age 87. In April of the next year we held a memorial for him which I think he would have liked. It was a low key potluck where a couple of us had the chance to talk but where all of us got together one more time. The Pepsi is now named in his honor. I hope when the runners start this weekend, with all their sophisticated heart monitors and replacement drinks and interval clocks, they will at least think back a bit to the founder of the tradition.