I love dumb copy editor stories. Here’s the latest. Some newspaper in Northern California has this story on M55 sprinter Hal Tacker, and quotes him as saying: “And there is a guy in Texas who is 55 who ran a 10.1 100.” Don’t know if Hal is referring to Bill Collins, who ran that fast in his 20s. But still. Here’s where the copy desk went south: “The 10.1-second performance would have placed him seventh at the 2008 Summer Games in China.” Great research! But then you don’t ask yourself the natural follow-up question: On what planet does a 55-year-old run 100 meters in 10.1? (The answer is Jawoggy, in the Constellation Orion.) Nice profile otherwise.

Here’s the whole story, in case the copy editor crashes his paper’s website:

Tacker finds running late in life, and a perfect fit
By Todd R. Hansen/Tri-County Newspapers
2010-10-22 14:58:26

Hal Tacker sometimes feels like a kid among the accomplished seniors he competes against in the masters track and field events.

He runs against Olympians — current and past — some legends in the sport.

At 56, however, the owner of Colusa Fitness Center and noted artist is anything but a kid.

Then again, he doesn’t feel very old, either.

“There was a guy at the Senior Games in Idaho that said they should call this anything but senior,” said Tacker, who won four golds (50, 100, 200, 400) and two silvers (800 and 1,500) at the event this summer to earn a spot in the National Senior Games Association championships in Texas next summer.

“And there is a guy in Texas who is 55 who ran a 10.1 100,” added Tacker.

The 10.1-second performance would have placed him seventh at the 2008 Summer Games in China.

What makes Tacker a kid among the other seniors is his experience — or lack of it.

He has only been competing for four years. The masters events feature competitors 35 and older, and divided among various age divisions, though often with open divisions as well.

“After Little League and a little Babe Ruth, all I did was race motorcycles,” said Tacker, who was raised in the Sacramento area and attended James Marshall High — now River City High.

“I never even considered another sport.”

His 23 years on motorcycle tracks — from age 13 to 36 — left Tacker with a host of injuries, including a broken back and badly injured knees.

So it was more than a little bit of a surprise to him that when he started running, the pain eventually just went away.

“This all from God. I have been too broken up and have been in too many accidents to be doing this on my own,” Tacker said.

It was through his faith that Tacker also got his inspiration — his faith and a video of Dick and Rick Hoyt compete in the annual Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii.

Rick was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy in 1962. According to Team Hoyt’s website, doctors advised Dick and his wife, Judy, to institutionalize their son.

Instead, they saturated him in life, taking him sledding and swimming and working every day to improve his basic motor and communication skills.

And they went running — with Dick Hoyt pushing his son’s wheelchair.

They competed in their first Boston Marathon in 1981, and the story is still being written.

“When I saw that, and the effort and perseverance he had to do that, that’s all I really needed,” Tacker said.

“I was so inspired, and maybe it was a divine thing. Either way, I felt like running. … It hurt when I started, but it just went away.”

Tacker competed in 14 events in 2007. He entered 23 in 2008; 42 in 2009; and has competed in 56 events this year.

Those include track competitions, bike races and a combination of both — events called duathlons, which he quickly found he has a knack for.

In January 2008, he won an event in El Sobrante. It entailed running 2 miles, biking 20 miles, then running another 2 miles.

It was at another 2008 event in Chico where Tacker caught the eye of the Nike Fleet Feet Team. At first, he turned down the offer to join the team. Not long after that, he changed his mind.

Now he has a running coach, and has added a biking coach from the national team Kinetics Cycling.

“Through this whole thing, my goal has been to run the Iron Man, so I thought, the better I get on each event, the better it would be. I have left swimming for last,” Tacker said.

Tacker said he is still learning about the specialized training techniques needed to compete at the next level, and in addition to his coaches, relies a lot on his fitness center manager, John Soares, to help him with his workouts.

Tacker also hopes to spread some of the inspiration he feels to compete at higher levels to some of the young athletes in Colusa County.

His goal is not to get them to the Olympics, but out of the house and healthier.

“I think the (video games) and TV, what you would call electronic babysitting, is having a big impact,” Tacker said.

He would love to see all children in some kind of sports program, but even if it is not an organized program like Little League or high school athletics, to join something.

“It’s not about winning and losing,” said Tacker. “I’m on the track with some of the fastest guys in the world and I just try to hang in with them. That’s my goal.”

Of course, Tacker offer another kind of inspiration with his paint brush.

He is currently working on two commissioned pieces that mix his old passion for art with his newer competitive passion, one from within the world of cycling, and one of legendary runner Steve Prefontaine.

Tacker has an art show planned for December.