Paper: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Title: These guys show up, and you can bet on it
Date: August 26, 2006

SUMMARY: Lew Johnston and Larry Dutko never miss Hood to Coast,a friendly 25-year rivalry they vow will last until their legs quit


SANDY --  The Fred Meyer parking lot here had turned into what seemed like Hood to Coast's tailgate central by the time the relay's two veterans arrived early Friday afternoon to run their first leg in this year's race.


Amid vans painted with team names and adorned with everything from blow-up sharks to fake doughnuts, Lew Johnston of Oregon City and Larry Dutko of Southwest Portland were but two of hundreds of runners socializing, snacking and downing liquids. It was familiar territory for both men, the only participants to have run every Hood to Coast.


Now in its 25th year, the relay had begun at 8 a.m. with the first wave of runners taking off from Timberline Lodge. With 1,000 teams of 12 and staggered start times, Johnston's team didn't begin until 11:15 in the morning. Dutko's squad was scheduled to get going at 3:30 in the afternoon. Both will end the 197-mile odyssey from Mount Hood to Seaside today.


Each team member is required to run three of the race's 36 legs, leaving lots of down time. Which is what creates the tailgate atmosphere, one loved by Dutko, who is 57.


He and his teammates rolled into the west end of the Fred Meyer about 1 p.m., their unmistakable hooptie of a van drawing stares and laughs. Earlier Friday morning, as the ritual for the past 15 years or so had gone, the group of guys used bungee cords to tie a black wooden coffin to the top of Dutko's beige 1984 Dodge van, inscribed with "Dead Jocks in a Box."


The name and decorations fit right in at a race that includes the "Blister Sisters," "The Fit, the Fat & the Elderly," "Rapid Thigh Movement" and other self-deprecating teams.


Inside the van, Dutko keeps three super-soaker water guns to spray other runners on the course.


"The goal here is run hard, have fun and no mechanical problems," said Dutko, a Freightliner project manager who wore sneakers, shorts and a white tank top imprinted with his team name.


With his first leg hours away, he finished off a ham sandwich and joked about the Dead Jock Fashion Report bulletin board on the side of the van, dedicated to posting Polaroids of attractive women from other teams. Team captain Jim Ekberg handed them coupons good for a free Dead Jock massage after the race today.


What has brought Dutko back to the relay year after year is the camaraderie of his teammates, most from Oregon, but with one or two new runners from out-of-state replacing injured guys each go-around, he said.


"We don't see each other very much during the year, so this is our reunion," Dutko said.


Even as Dutko and his teammates have aged, they have stayed competitive, preferring to add teammates who run a 7-minute mile or better. He ran a 5:30 pace his first year when he teamed up with Hood to Coast founder Bob Foote.


The mantra from day one, he said: "Never slow down, no matter how hard you're hurting."


The one time Dutko suffered a serious injury, about 15 years ago, gives Johnston a leg up --literally --in the record books. During his second leg, Dutko pulled up limping from a torn hamstring after hammering down a hill. He couldn't complete his final leg.


It became Dutko's "one asterisk year," Foote said. "Lou has an edge, because he's done every leg of every year."


*


Less than an hour after Dutko's arrival at Fred Meyer, Johnston's team, named Lew's A Puffin, pulls into a spot nearby.


"Let's . . . fight it out," joked Jim Sapp, Johnston's teammate and Dutko's former teammate as they walk over to Dutko's camp.


"We've got at least 20 more years," Dutko tells Johnston.


"Now you're talking."


"We might have to be on the same team, eventually."


Then Ekberg, the Dead Jocks captain, revealed that the team had been collecting $5 from each teammate for more than a dozen years. The pool of $850 was to go to either Dutko or Johnston, whoever kept the annual Hood to Coast participation streak going the longest.


"They ought to say, here, take the money now," said Johnston, covered in a dark bronze tan.


Johnston's team is tamer. Its van, a rental, is decorated with just one sign with a tagline that reads "25 years & Still Going!" His teammates, including women, range in age from 43 to 66.


Johnston, who has run about 40 marathons, said he still gets nervous on race day.


"I want to get that first leg done," he said. "Then I can calm down a bit."


But even between legs, he said, he can never sleep: "I'm there lying, thinking about the next leg."


Johnston, like Dutko, also averaged sub-6-minute miles in his first Hood to Coast. Last year, he ran a 7-minute pace. He attributed his longevity to his job as a garbage hauler for the past 39 years.


"You get good exercise and upper body strength, and you're moving all the time," he said.


He averages about 30 miles a week these days, running six days a week.


"I'm 66, but I've got the body of an 18-year-old," he said.


Pressed to speculate how long he'll run Hood to Coast, he responds: "Until my legs quit."


ILLUSTRATION: Dutko - Relishes team's camaraderie


ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos by The Oregonian / JAMIE FRANCIS


Bo Herzog: 503-412-7072 or boherzog@gmail.com