Mortgage meltdown victims include miler Tony Young

Tony Young, who lowered the M45 world record in the mile this past spring, has courageously shared details of his private life. Venture Bank, his employer in Redmond, Washington, laid him off several weeks ago. “Yes, this has been a rough time to be a banker (loan officer),” Tony wrote me this week in reply to a query. “Myself and 30 others were ‘downsized’ (sounds better than fired!), because the banks had stopped lending $$$.” Even though Tony’s wife also is out of work, he’s not in dire straits. He received a severance that will last several months.

Tony is looking for work in the banking industry “with employers not-so-exposed to the quagmire that exists in today’s economic landscape,” he wrote me. “Those are far and few, though.”
Tony continued:

We have always saved hard for a rainy day. . . . We are lucky, too, in that we do not carry much (if any) monthly debt. I guess frugal is a good description of our lifestyle.

None of this has stopped Tony from training for the USATF masters national cross country club championships in Spokane or cheering on his son Mack, 16, at Redmond High School, one of the top runners in the state.
Tony adds:

Running is going well with high school XC going full speed (son & daughter) and weekly meets to travel to and I had a couple of races to slowly work myself into decent shape by December and impending Masters XC Club Nationals.

(On the letsrun.com message board, Tony described how he ran in a community cross-country race last week after some earlier prep races, saying: “These are great to blow out the cobwebs and stay under radar without getting destroyed by the collegians. . . My goal was to beat the winner of the boys invitational . . . . Mission accomplished.” Tony ran 60 miles in training that week, including a “measured trail, 400, 400, 800, Mile, 800, 400, 400” — all at under 70-second quarter pace.)
Tony says he has convinced son Mack that “nobody can outkick him at the end; he just has to be closer to make it work!”
As a world-class age-group miler, Tony knows how to pace himself, so I’m confident he’ll survive this career interruption. He’s tough and will outkick this economic crisis. Maybe the latest news out of Washington — Senate OK of a “rescue package” — will lead to House approval and some semblance of sanity in the markets.
Then Tony will find it easier to put his banker training and experience to work for another employer. We wish him all the best. Hang tough, man. You’re in our thoughts.