To tell the truth I’m up to my eyeballs with Tootells

Asking is an invitation to tell a story. I took a picture of Emma, 2, and Ryder, 1, Tootell kicking back in a carriage after the start of the Beach Paper 5K last Saturday morning in Rehoboth. I asked them their last names but they wouldn’t tell me so their dad, Jason, told me it was Tootell.

“Hey, I know you,” I said to Jason, who was standing with his brother Jared, and nearby with grandfather Doug and in the race were grandmother Betsy and Jason’s wife Rhoda and also Jared’s wife Kim.

Jason and Jared are jetting off to Switzerland Tuesday, July 8 on the first leg of a journey to compete in a full Ironman competition through the foothills of Switzerland. Jason and Jared warmed up competing in the Rehoboth Biathlon on Sunday. Jared placed fourth overall in the male division while Jason was sixth. Doug Tootell walked in the biathlon because he is injured. Betsy Tootell ran in both the Beach Paper 5K on Saturday and Jimmy’s Grill 5K on Sunday. Josh, the youngest brother, lives in Austin, Texas. He is the younger brother of Jason and Jared and has run the Nashville Marathon and a couple half marathons.  All three boys were Rehoboth Beach Patrol members.

Now, to tell the truth, I’m up to my eyeballs in Tootells.

RUNNING THE RACE - Marge and Rich Warshauer ran the Jimmy’s Grill 5K last Sunday morning in Dewey Beach with Rich chasing like he had been for the last 50 years. Early morning storm warnings did not deter this upbeat and wet feet couple who on July 20 will “celebrate” their 50th wedding anniversary. Celebrate is in quotes because the entire journey has been a celebration, which is apparent watching them sit and relax with friends after races.

Marge retired from the Government Printing Office (CIA?) while Rich was in marketing for a large trash removal company (Mafia). The parentheses represent my jokes figuring the way they survived is by not talking to each other, but if you know Rich, he is the talker while Marge is in charge of shutting him down.

The Warshaurers have three children, sons 49 and 46 and a 40-year-old daughter. Marge began running in the early ‘80s doing the Marine Corps Marathon in 1986 while Rich began in the ‘90s with the Time Out Sports series. This couple is inspirational, to say the least, and they both said the key has been to remain great friends, to work at staying healthy and to be lucky.

I will add “and to drink a cold bottle of beer after a race if it’s free and some else goes and gets it.”

WENDY NELSON BARRETT -

Wendy teaches 12th-grade English at Lebanon High School in Pennsylvania - not Beirut - and she is a member of the famous athletes with three names club. My great friend Chic Hess coached basketball at Lebanon back in the day when Sam Bowie went there; Bowie then went to Kentucky and was chosen in the NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers before Michael Jordan.

Wendy went to high school then ran all three seasons at Penn State with Chic’s daughter, which started the “it’s a small world club” as I sent Wendy’s picture off to Chic in Hawaii where he lives and used to be the head basketball coach at the Brigham Young Hawaii campus.

Dr. Charles Hess wrote a book, “Prof Blood and the Wonder Teams” because everyone from the Catholic high school of Bishop Egan learned to write under the very real and mostly deserved threat of physical assault.

Wendy Nelson Barrett owns a personal best at 10K of 33:45 and competed in the Olympic Trials Marathon in 1992, 1996 and 2000, owning a personal best mark of 2:39. Wendy has been injured the last two years and is just getting back into shape.

WHACK IN THE WATER - There is something slightly “off” about Dara Torres being the fastest short freestyle sprint swimmer in the world at the age of 41. She is rangy, lean and ripped with that big vein raised and visible coming down her biceps instead of the middle of her forehead. Younger swimmers are suspicious of Dara and I am slightly skeptical just like I would be if a 41-year-old sprinter blew away the field in the 100 meters on the track.

Dara married her second husband, Israeli surgeon Itzhak Shasha, around 2005 and had a daughter, Tessa Grace, with her “partner” David Hoffman, born in April 2006. The elements of a different kind of story are rolling inside this ball of yarn, but the modern media is more interested in fee- good stories and perhaps that’s all this is.

But as grandmom Rose would say, “If a 41-year-old swims like a duck better check the bottom of her feet.”

WARRIOR GIRLS - A book by sportswriter Michael Sokolove should be read by all parents who are over the top - and you know who you are - and all coaches who train young women in sports. The gist of the book can be captured on the NPR website npr.org, then click on the “Fresh Air” program, or just go out and buy the book.

Basically young women are getting injured at alarming rates - statistics back it up - eight times more likely than males to suffer ACL injuries and lots of concussions from collisions - they may be limping but at least they don’t know what day it is. Sokolove said in the NPR radio interview that after puberty boys get stronger and girls gain flexibility. And he said, “Playing one sport all year round is the quickest way to injury.” Youth sports has become like Lake Woebegone - all the children are above average.”

SNIPPETS - The Major League 11-12 year old All-Stars begin play Friday, July 11 with Lewes and Rehoboth playing at Georgetown against somebody which may or may not be each other. There are games at 6 and 8 p.m. more or less because sometimes games take a little longer or a lot longer. A more exact schedule will be in the Friday edition of the Cape Gazette.

Time for me to chase my tail I am so confused. Go on now, git!