Millrose AA Website
Max
Popper;
Millrose Nonogenarian
Articles
Your
reporter had last seen Max Popper while he had escorted Max down Fifth
Avenue during the 1997 Fifth Avenue Mile (see picture.) So, I was happy
to encounter the venerable speedster at the NYRRC "Club Night" on February
21 1998. Max, at 94 years of age, is the most senior member on the Team
roster.
At the party, surrounded by his teammates, he was enjoying himself. There then occurred one of those poignant moments which leaves its traces on the discerning observer. Circulating in the background of the gala, I noticed the elegant Tegla Loroupe, the NYC Marathon champion and still very young in spite of her years as a competitor. It dawned on me (without really thinking it through) that I might put these two, Max and Tegla, together-runners both-one young, one older; one American , one African, boy-meets-girl....in a photograph. I approached Tegla (and as I had been of some service to her tribal council during the late unpleasantness in that region, she, speaking in her dialect, was happy to do me the favor.
Tom Gibbons (see photo with Max) escorted the nonogenarian over to Tegla for the foto-op two shot(as we say in the business.) After formal introductions(Tegla is quite formal) she posed with Max, showing some reluctance It seemed to me. After the picture taking, Tegla walked with me apace, speaking in her own language and I understood her to say: ÒB wana (sir or honored person) in my kraal (village) when a girl has her photo taken with an older famous man (Max?) it means that she is going to be one of his wives...) Tegla was not smiling. The photograph has vanished. We must find it. -the end