Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Title: STUNG BY EX-HIVEMATE, KILLER B'S LOOK FOR REVENGE 
Date: August 23, 1991

Embarrassed last year by a former team member and his ``hired guns,'' the Killer B's are out to reclaim the men's open championship in the 10th Hood to Coast Relay that begins Friday afternoon at Timberline Lodge.


``They're really loaded for bear this year,'' said race organizer Robert  Foote, Jr., talking about the Portland-area squad of elite runners that has  won the Hood to Coast four times since the event was created in 1982.Dave Frank, a former Gladstone resident and former Killer B, organized the  Palo Alto, Calif.-based ``The Athletic Department -- Black Flag'' team last  year specifically to beat the Bs.


``Exterminate them,'' corrected Frank.


When all was said and done, Frank's Californians had squashed the Killer  B's in the record time of 16 hours, 3 minutes, 57 seconds, obliterating the  Killer B's Hood to Coast record of 16:24.57 on a course a half-mile longer.


Crowed Frank, ``the Killer B's were nowhere to be seen.''


Nowhere, in this case, translated into third place.


``We didn't know anything about how strong they would be until four nights  before the race,'' said Greg Gustafson, the Killer B's 36-year-old captain.  ``It was an incredible feat, really, to drive for 20 hours or so, sleep one  night, drive to Timberline and then proceed to kick our butts pretty badly.''


The re-stocked Killer B's are favored in this year's 10th running of the  Hood to Coast, probably because the defending champions are not entered.


The B's chief competition this year figures to be the Paint The Town -- The `A' Team, the Asics Tigers from Seattle and a Southern California squad  called, the Boho Bee Killers.


Foote said the four-time Hood to Coast winning Coastline Cruisers women's  team from Portland also is looking for revenge after getting upset last year  by Chicks That Crank from Seattle.


Among the more interesting stories this year in the Hood to Coast are the  newly added walking division and 18-and-under division:


*The father and son team of Larry and Stacey Axmaker expect to cover the  192.7 miles in about 29 hours, alternating running and resting in a van driven by Larry's wife, Carol, ``so we can get in a pass out,'' Stacey Axmaker said.  They figure to get about 40 minutes rest between each leg. There are 36 legs  in all.


Larry Axmaker, 51, is a veteran ultra-distance runner who has won the  Hawaii 50-mile race four times. Stacey Axmaker, 22, has run two ultra races  and 11 marathons. He lives in Portland.


Father and son started kicking around the idea of doing the Hood to Coast  in 1989, when they completed an informal 130-mile relay around Oahu.


Team name? ``The Axmen Cometh.''


*A team of pediatric nurse practitioners will chase dollars when they run  the Hood to Coast. The Heart and Sole team is running in the women's masters  division and taking pledges to raise money to fund vaccinations for low-income Oregonians. ``We're all over-40 and most of us are moms,'' said Ardy Dunn, a  team member.


*For the first time, Oregon Special Olympics is fielding a unified  12-person team that includes several mentally retarded athletes. ``Special  Feat'' includes David Maeyaert, the gold medalist in the 5,000 meters and  silver medalist in the half-marathon at the International Special Olympics,  and Mike Lyons, who ran the Portland Marathon last year and won an  International Special Olympics medal when he pitched for the Oregon softball  team that finished second.


*Foote said the varied Hood-to-Coast entry list also includes several teams from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, a diabetic and asthmatic team, 22  walking teams in the shorter, 2-year-old Portland to Coast Relay, armed  services teams from Europe, and the familiar Phantom 500 team composed of 13-  to 15-year-old Girl Scouts from Lake Oswego.