Olympian Ruth Wysocki was one of the few American middle-distance runners to challenge (and beat) Mary Decker Slaney in the 1980s. But after rabbiting in Europe at some big-name meets in her 30s, Ruth retreated to Southern California domesticity, which includes raising a runner son. Now she’s piped up on a T&FN Message Board talking about an “unlikely” masters comeback in 2007, when she turns 50. But she was the one who brought it up. Of course, I egged her on.

Our recent exchange:
RUTH:
I’m definitely not on the comeback trail, but I do turn 50 in March 2007…
Our son, Michael, is 15 and is currently my running partner. This is his first year of “serious” running. He ran on the cross country teams at the private school I taught at during Jr. Hi, but only ran a few days a week. He always played baseball in the spring. He is now 10th grade (and an outstanding student!) and ran cross country for them. He is giving up baseball and will run track this spring. In California, the coaches can’t work with them until Feb. 14th, so he is running with me for now and I love it! He improved his Mt. Sac time from 19:41 to 17:40 this year and is on a team of 120 runners. The high school is new and only has 9, 10, and 11 grades right now. I’m hoping that track will instill pace in him and get him up off his heels, so we’ll see what the future holds. I know that there are a number of college coaches keeping an eye open, but they will have to be a great academic school as well.
By the way, my oldest brother’s son, Eric Kleinsasser, is a sophomore at Crescenta Valley High School and was the winner of the 10th grade Division I race at the prestigious Woodbridge Invitational this past fall. His dad was a 1:50 800 meter man in his college days at Cal Tech. Another brother has a son who is coaching at a high school in the Wichita area (his wife coaches with him and has finished a marathon in decent time) and my youngest brother has a daughter running in the Kansas City area for her high school. The Kleinsasser family heritage lives on!
ME:
Hey, Ruth! Didja hear they pay big bux on the masters circuit for rabbiting?
Ooops, sorry. Meant that for my 4/01 post.
Anyhoo, just in case U haven’t checked lately:
W50 American outdoor records:
800m 2:21.98 DeeDee Grafius CA (50) , CA 4/17/99
1500m 4:52.55 Kathryn Martin NY (50) Orono, ME 8/11/02
1 mi. 5:15.55 Kathryn Martin NY (50) Alexandria, VA 9/1/02
3000 m 10:19.3 Kathryn Martin NY (50) Uniondale, NY 7/18/02
W50 American indoor records:
800m 2:26.69 Kathryn Martin NY (53) Nampa, ID 3/13/05
1500m 4:57.6 Kathryn Martin NY (52) Brentwood, NY 2/8/04
1 mi. 5:14.00 Kathryn Martin NY (52) New York, NY 3/21/04
3000 m 10:23.84 Kathryn Martin NY (52) Boston, MA 3/26/04
See U when the kids are out of school!
RUTH:
Ken,
I would say that my return to the track is highly unlikely. Seeing the records is intriguing, though. One thing I can guarantee is that the indoor records are safe – I never did like running indoor. Funny you should mention the rabbiting. Because I had a good sense of pace, I did a fair amount of it, particularly as I got older. When I was 40, I rabbited quite a bit for Gabriela Szabo among others. It was fun, paid well, and took the pressure off of racing. Just as the race got tough, I got to drop out!
Me again:
Of course, everyone (especially a mom) deserves a break from training and competition. But I’ll predict here that in a couple years, when the nest is empty, we’ll be seeing a return to track of one of the great American runners of the past 30 years — and the daughter of a pioneer masters multi-eventer, Willis Kleinsasser.