My friend Jeff Bostow is one crazy guy! (all in a good way!) Jeff is a coach with Life Time Fitness in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St.Paul. This past winter he led a training group of folks that were running the 2009 Boston Marathon. A couple of months before the race he had a idea to surprise his athletes and give them all a copy of the book "Duel in the Sun" not just to give them a copy, but to have it signed by myself, Alberto Salazar, and the author John Brant! So as they climbed on board the bus heading to the starting line in Hopkington, they all received a signed book.
Now you would think that would be the end of the story wouldn't you? Noooooooo! Jeff contacted me to see if I would be able to come up for their post Boston party to surprise everyone! Well, it all worked out and I arrived in Minneapolis from Austin the morning of the party. Jeff and I went for breakfast and we layed out the plans on how it would all unfold.
By 4 pm I had to be in one of the bedrooms in his house so no one would know I was there. At around 5 guests started arriving and they were enjoying the nice day outside talking about the race and other things while a big ole kettle of stew was cooking on the fire pit.
Jeff started the official program around 7, he then showed a video of the "Duel in the Sun" race from 1982, then he had another short video off of "YouTube" of me telling the "Duel in the Sun" story to a group in Chicago. By this time I was now down hiding in a downstairs room waiting for my cue to walk out. After the video Jeff said even though Dick now lives in Austin, Texas, let's give him a big round of applause for all he has done for running here in Minnesota.
That was my cue, I walked out onto the patio at that point, people at first were speechless and dumbfounded all at the same time! I will never ever forget the looks on their faces when I walked out! After the shock, we took lots of pictures and had a great time for the next couple of hours. Jeff, I can't thank you enough for what you did not only for me but more importantly for all your athletes! You're a good man my friend, keep up the great work you do! :-)
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