Dec. 27, 2023
Geoff Pietsch passed away December 24. We met through this blog and wrote back and forth for at least 5 years. Geoff was so knowledgeable about our sport and so honest and insightful on many subjects away from running and track and field, that I could turn to him anytime for advice and comment. His thoughts have often been expressed in this blog.
Geoff lived, taught, and coached in Florida and I think we were initially connected by mutual friend Bruce Kritzler. We shared our Germanic origins, our love of running, and our interest in the world outside of sport. He often sent articles that were of mutual interest, and he connected me with many others of similar background. A month or so ago, he sent his final message that doctors had given him a few months to live. It was a farewell message, and I responded in one of those 'what can I possibly say?' replies and told him that he would be in my thoughts to the end and after.
Here is one of those last messages.
In the time of our acquaintance we discovered that we had both run in the 1978 Boston Marathon. He ran well, perhaps his PR? 2:33:55 in 259th place. I blew up that day and finished exactly 1000 places behind him in 1259th with a 2:51:50. Perhaps we ran close by each other in the early stages, but we never knew. I still have no idea of my splits. I do remember walking off course after Heartbreak Hill, but very little of anything else that day. I do know I did not take a bus or subway to get to the finish.
As proof of our respective finishes, I'm pasting some pages from the 'Racers Recordbook' which was sent out to all the entrants of that day in 1978. 2047 men and 29 women broke three hours in that cool and cloudy environment. Hometown boy, Bill Rodgers won the men's race in 2:10:13 and Gayle Barron of Atlanta won the women's race in 2:44:52
Image may be NSFW.
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My place, 1259thHappy Trails, Geoff
Comments from Geoff's friends:
Geoff was one of those who were there when it was all happening in that long ago running world of the 60s and 70s.. As a teacher, coach, and athlete, he was talented, eloquent, and steadfast, and the world is a smaller place without him. RIP, old friend.John Parker
(author of 'Once a Runner', ed.)
I received this email this evening.
Geoff was at the reunion on Friday night last year and was so excited to be there.He had great stories about his time training with the FTC and just his time competing in the 1970s and 80's. He coached at Miami Ransom Everglades for many years until he retired to Gainesville in the late 90s.He was a great champion of the sport and I knew him from my days running in the early 80s against his team. We got lucky one year and beat his team for PK Yonge first and only state championship in school history.He compiled the rankings during his time as head coach and wrote a personal note about me to my coach which I have kept.Ricky Quintana
From: Shelby Highsmith
I've cobbled together what I hastily could from a couple old email distros, but please pass the word to folks I've missed.Sadly, Geoff Pietsch passed away Sunday evening, after a rapid progression of whatever strange variety of cancer they found a few months ago, as many of you may have heard recently. Adding insult to injury, some of you also may have gotten a spam email from his account Friday night, from a bot that also wiped out his Sent mail folder, so Barbara didn't have ready access to a list to send the news to.Per Barbara, there will, in super Pietsch fashion, be no funeral or service or anything, nor even an obituary beyond the legacy of many letters to the editor of the Gainesville Sun. Maybe this is the year those of us dispersed try to make it back for the alumni fun run and have a memorial of our own (let's just not make it an official RE event), although I for one will need a bicycle for these knees or there will be no fun in it whatsoever.I'll always like to remember him in this goofy picture I took from laying on the sidewalk in front of my room at the Bambi Motel at Florida Relays '92 and printed in Ms. DeLemos's photography lab.From the 1992 REXC "pamphlet" that he always typed out, hand wrote, and photocopied every year:"Have ideals and live them. Question authority. Live every day as if it were your last, for some day you're sure to be right." -- Harry (Breaker) Morant."He ran because it grounded him in basics. There was both life and death in it. It was unadulterated by media hype, trivial cares, political meddling. Running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond. It made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free." - John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner.
Thanks for giving this insight into a person I had heard of but never knew. We are losing too many of our running pioneers. Bill Schnier