Relay: A Novel for Young Adults

By Edward R. Koch

Ted Stewart is a runner at Green Ridge High School. The boys’ track & field team at Green Ridge won the state championship last year, but many of its stars have graduated. Now they are the underdogs, although Coach Bill Mallory is confident that Ted, Josh Johnson, and others can fill the gaps and compete with archrival Riverside High. Ted, however, will have to deal with his teammate Sonny Lamar who rarely has a kind word for anybody.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385003655

Edward R. Koch

Edward R. Koch is a retired CPA/Tax Attorney who resides in northern New Jersey with his family. He competed for championship teams in high school and college. Since that time, he has officiated at all levels of the sport from the 1996 Olympic Games to local youth and adult events. He served during 2000-2008 as national treasurer of USA Track & Field, the national governing body of the sport. In 2013, he was inducted into the National Track & Field Officials Hall Of Fame.

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Copyright © 2023 Edward R. Koch.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue

in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

WestBow Press

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this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0364-8 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0365-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023913681

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/03/2023

DEDICATION

For my coaches, teammates, and fellow officials who

taught me what I know about our sport;

And

To my late friend Larry James, the greatest anchor leg of them all.

CONTENTS

Preface

Preface to Second Edition

Chapter 1     November

Chapter 2     Early December

Chapter 3     Mid-December

Chapter 4     Holidays

Chapter 5     Early January

Chapter 6     Mid-January

Chapter 7     Late January

Chapter 8     Early February

Chapter 9     Mid-February

Chapter 10   Late February

Chapter 11   Early March

Chapter 12   Middle March

Chapter 13   Late March

Chapter 14   Early April

Chapter 15   Mid April

Chapter 16   Late April

Chapter 17   Late April (Continued)

Chapter 18   Early May

Chapter 19   Mid-May

Chapter 20   Late May

Chapter 21   June

Chapter 22   June (Continued)

PREFACE

T he characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Here are a few examples:

Sonny Lamar is not based on any particular individual, but I am sure most readers have met an individual or two like him at some time or another.

Riverside High School is not based on Riverside, NJ. I did not know that the real town existed until after I had written the story.

As for delicatessens, fictional and real, I should note that I am not related to the owners of Koch’s Delicatessen in Philadelphia, but I think their sandwiches are great.

Some readers may recognize my name from the positions I’ve held in USA Track & Field. The opinions expressed in this book are not necessarily the views of that organization, and are solely the responsibility of the author.

A note to the late author Clair Bee: you should have had Chip Hilton go out for the track & field team.

I would like to give a few words of thanks to many people.

I’d like to thank my family. My parents and siblings have always been supportive of my track & field endeavors. My wife Cora inspires me daily, and read the manuscript. My two sons keep me young at heart.

I’d also like to thank Pat Rico, who read the manuscript, and my many New Jersey Strider friends, who all gave me track & field insights along the way: Sean Albert, Ron Artis, Bob Ayling, Peter Cassotis, Tony Ciccone, Frank and Karen Collins, Chris Coughlin, Ed Dougherty, Tom and Lori Gerlach, Bob Hauk, Paul Jayson, Randy Krakower, Steve Lurie, Phil Moliere, John Oellermann, and Bill Pollinger. And a special thanks to Gerald Connell. Of course, any mistakes are my own.

Above all, I thank God for seeing me through the closest thing to childbirth I shall ever experience.

Edward R. Koch

January 2009

PREFACE TO

SECOND EDITION

T his story was originally published in 2009. Unfortunately, the original publisher went out of business in 2020 and the book had been out-of-print in recent years. Since its sequel is to be published shortly, it was time to get the original book back into print. Hence, this second edition.

In 2009, smartphones and social media were not yet commonplace and do not appear in the story. I considered whether to update the story but decided to leave it as is.

While readers will not see smartphones and social media in Ted Stewart’s high school setting, they will see them in the sequel involving Ted’s much younger brother Artie Stewart.

Edward R. Koch

August 2023

CHAPTER ONE:

NOVEMBER

"S ixty-four point eight."

Coach Bill Mallory read the time aloud from his stopwatch as the six athletes stood beyond the finish line, trying to catch their breath, exhaling puffs of white in the cold.

Thanksgiving had come and gone. They were training for the indoor track season, but the first indoor meet was a month away. In the meantime, they had to bundle up and train outside.

The six athletes walked around the first turn of the 400-meter oval track on the outside lanes. The walk became a slow jog that would bring them around to the starting line again for the next interval. The sun was already low in the gray sky.

Ted Stewart was a fraction of an inch taller than the others in the group. His slender frame of six feet was covered by a sweatshirt and running tights, hiding the leg muscles developed from training under the tutelage of Coach Mallory at Green Ridge High. Stewart was once a sprinter, but he had learned all about difficult interval workouts ever since his coach had converted him to a half-miler almost two years before.

That last 400 really hurt, thought Ted, and we still have seven to go. And the next ones are going to hurt even more. We’re not even halfway there.

He quickly put such thoughts out of his mind. Experience taught him that a long-term outlook made sense before or after a workout, but intervals must be taken one at a time – especially in the early going.

The sophomores were to blame for the early struggles. Standard operating procedure called for runners to take turns leading the intervals. Sophomores usually led the early ones while they were fresh. They were often enthusiastic and inexperienced in their pacing. Coach Mallory wanted the intervals at sixty-five seconds or better, but Schwartz had zipped through the first one in 62.1, and Park led the next one even faster at 61.8. The group quickly paid the price. Ted’s classmate Brad Hanson had just struggled on the third interval, and there was still a long way to go.

Ted couldn’t really be mad at the sophomores. A year ago, he was the soph making the mistakes and learning from his older teammates. Jogging on the backstretch, his mind turned to a different issue: Who should lead the next interval? There were only three candidates. He moved alongside his pal Josh, and turned his head to ask the question. Josh, however, spoke first.

Don’t look at me, he said, shaking his head. Ask Tony. He’s the senior.

They both looked at Tony Mancini. Tony said nothing for a few moments, thinking it over. Finally, he spoke.

I’ll take the next one, guys, was all he said.

Tony was a senior, but had less experience with intervals than Ted or Josh. He had been a pole vaulter for a couple years at Green Ridge with middling success. Then as a junior, he went out for cross country in the fall to improve his conditioning, and he ended up winning the Most Improved Award. Tony quickly decided his future had more upside as a runner than as a vaulter, and continued to improve on the track and in cross country. As a senior, he had just spent the last couple of months serving as the critical fifth man on the cross country team.

The group finished their jog around the track in silence. As they approached the starting line, they looked at Coach Mallory, who nodded. Mallory didn’t have his runners stop at the starting line for each interval. Interferes with the flow, he would say. Instead, the group jogged into the start and took off, with Tony in the lead, Ted and Josh right behind him, and Hanson and the sophs bringing up the rear, all of them running more or less on the inside lane in single file.

Their legs were no longer fresh and already felt heavy coming out of the first turn. Then the wind hit them. Not a gentle summer breeze, but a nasty gust from the northwest, coming from Canada or the Artic. November was giving the runners a chilly preview of the winter months ahead.

More gusts hit Tony head on. Ted and Josh tried to tuck in behind him, but caught their share of it anyway, as did the others. Tony carried on. He hit the 200-meter mark and headed into the far turn - where an interval leader earns his keep. Setting an early pace is one thing, but maintaining it through the entire interval is entirely another. Tony was up to the challenge this time around.

Coming down the final meters, Ted thought the group was a shade quicker than the previous interval. Running the lap at about a sixty-five second pace meant that a tenth of a second equaled only a difference of about a couple of feet. An observer might think it difficult to determine such small gradations without a watch, but experienced runners can often sense it. Moments after crossing the finish line, Ted’s hunch was verified as Coach Mallory read 64.6 from his stopwatch, an improvement of two-tenths of a second.

The six athletes began to walk and then jog another recovery lap before beginning another interval. The fourth interval had been physically the toughest yet, but Ted mentally felt a lift. They had reversed the trend and given themselves more leeway under 65 seconds.

The question now was whether Josh or he should lead the next one. Midway through the jog he turned to Josh again, but this time, Ted got the first words out.

What’s the word?

The word is that I should have shown some guts, and gone out for the bowling team, replied Josh, but since I’m here, I may as well do the next one.

Ted smiled at the comment. He had known his friend as long as he could remember, and Josh had a particular talent for making him smile, even in difficult circumstances.

Ted was happy, although surprised, when he heard that his friend had also been assigned to Group E with him. Josh was a hurdler, not a middle distance runner. Josh’s dad said Josh had been born to be a hurdler. Who better than someone named Joshua to follow in the hurdling tradition of Moses? And having Allen Johnson as your middle and last name wasn’t a bad hurdling moniker, either.

Joshua Johnson, however, had a problem in the winter. His best event was the 400-meter hurdles, but the event did not take place until the spring season because indoor tracks were too small to hold it. In the meantime, he needed to build his strength, and Coach Mallory decided to assign him to the half-miler group.

Once again, the six came back to the starting line and, seeing Coach Mallory nod, Josh led them as they ran around the first turn and into the wind on the backstretch. The group was now breaking into two. Ted and Tony could hang with Josh, but a gap developed between the trio and the secondary pack of Brad and the sophs.

Josh continued the pace into the second turn and especially worked the final 100 meters. He knew that in 400-meter hurdle races, winning or losing often depended on who had the stamina to clear the final hurdles. Workouts like this would build that stamina. He crossed the finish line and Coach Mallory called out 64.3 for the time.

They were now halfway done with the workout, and turning the corner. There was no need for discussion during this recovery lap. The next one was Ted’s to lead. He felt a responsibility. The others had done their job and he did not want to let them down.

Intervals are meant to be difficult because they are training against oxygen debt, which is the nemesis of all middle distance runners.

Top sprinters can run 100 or 200 meters at full speed without falling into serious oxygen debt. They can focus their training on improving their starts and doing speed work. Meanwhile, ultra-marathoners train for miles and miles off the track to make their bodies more efficient. Their goal is to compete at a better pace without going into oxygen debt. The scientists call this aerobic conditioning.

Runners that compete in events between the two extremes need to do speed work and aerobic conditioning, but they also need to do something else. By the end of their races, their legs are seriously short of oxygen. Lactic acid forms in the muscles, the legs get heavier, and the body tightens up. Teaching the body to tolerate the condition and minimize the effect is critical to success.

If runners trained for oxygen debt simply by running their event over and over again in practice, they’d soon slow down and not be able to duplicate race conditions. A long time ago, coaches figured out that the best way to simulate race conditions is to break down races into smaller components. Runners can repeat the shorter distances over and over again close to their racing pace. Thus, the interval workout was created. There are all sorts of variations, but doing quarters (what the boys were now doing) is a staple in many a runner’s training.

The six boys were completing their jog once more and nearing the start. Ted psyched himself up for the challenge. Mallory nodded and off he went.

The psychology of leading and following differs greatly. Leading is a burden but also gives a sense of freedom, since the leader is in control and determines the pace. Ted felt an extra jolt of energy as he rounded the turn and braced himself for the wind on the back straight.

The wind was even worse from the lead, but Ted worked his way down the straight. He did not look particularly fast, but his long stride covered a lot of ground. He had to struggle to hold the pace on the second turn but kept putting one foot in front of the other, seeking to make a solid lap. His legs felt awful with a hundred meters left, but he had led intervals hundreds of times before and, through that experience, had developed a mental toughness that would get him to the finish at moments such as these. Moments later, he was informed that he had matched Josh’s effort of 64.3.

They jogged around the track yet again. Ted felt temporarily drained but relieved. This had been his first real challenge of the season, a small but significant test, and he had passed it. And no matter how tough intervals were, Ted preferred it to cross country. He ran the latter to get in shape, but he was in his element on the track. He could feel a rhythm to running on the oval. It was like clockwork, even if they did actually run counter-clockwise around the track.

He was also relieved to have kept his part of the bargain for the group. Group E had just been formed with the start of the season, but the six runners had instantly bonded. Other workout groups had big names or more runners. Dwayne Tate led the sprinters. And Justin and the ABCs led a distance group that was larger. Group E was not high-profile, but all six of them worked hard and took pride in what they did.

Their group motto was that E stood for effort, energy, and excellence. Of course, Sonny Lamar said it stood for excruciating, but Sonny rarely had a good word for anybody else, let alone Ted Stewart.

The funny thing was that Group E was supposed to be the half-miler group but did not have a pure half-miler. Never mind that the 800-meter event is 184 inches short of 880 yards, which is a true half-mile. Coach was old school and still spoke the imperial distances. Even accepting the metric approximation, the group consisted of an ex-sprinter, an ex-pole vaulter, a hurdler, and three guys as likely to run the mile in competition as the 800 meters.

Ted just shrugged at the thought as he continued to jog. Coach Mallory said coaching was as much an art as a science and sometimes seemed like an alchemist mixing ingredients. More often than not, the results proved him out. His athletes learned to trust him, and other coaches said he was sly like a fox, or The Old Fox, as they nicknamed him.

The group continued another jog. There was no need to discuss who would lead the rest of the workout. It had been preordained by what had already transpired. Brad and the sophs could no longer maintain the pace. Tony, Josh, and Ted were left to lead the next three quarters in the same order they had led the last three. The finale, as always, would be up for grabs.

Tony and Josh led their next turns in 64.7 and 64.5, respectively. Group E was proving to be workmanlike and consistent. Coach Mallory liked that in a group.

Now it was Ted’s turn as they came around again to start the next-to-last interval. He knew that he had to be careful. There was a tendency to ease up and save a little for the