Bakersfield Life

Before the Dawn

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“Many of the world’s problems can be solved in an hour — and the great thing is that most of the time, your running partner is on your side.” — Linette Holliday, a 42-yea...“Many of the world’s problems can be solved in an hour — and the great thing is that most of the time, your running partner is on your side.” — Linette Holliday, a 42-year-old entrepreneur who runs with the Bagels and Blenderz group

At just after 4 a.m., alarm clocks signal another early day in Bakersfield for a group of runners with almost supernatural motivation. It’s not work that beckons them at this hour from the comfort of their beds, though. It’s exercise.

One by one, sets of headlights turn into the parking lot of Bagels and Blenderz at Stockdale Highway and Gosford Road, because inside the cars are people who’ve been running together before dawn for decades, and they know they will be held accountable if they don’t show up.

    Bagels and Blenderz, a locally owned bakery and juice bar, provides a meeting place for runners each day. The air is crisp, the coffee is hot, and camaraderie is in abundance.

For 13 years, the runners have used the quaint bagel shop as home base, but the group has been around much longer than that. In fact, many of the runners in this group weren’t even born yet when the group was founded four decades ago.

    “Before we started at Bagels (and Blenderz), a few of us started running in the late ‘60s on the track at West High. We later met at McDonalds for almost 20 years,” said John Rous, an insurance salesman. At 70, Rous isn’t the oldest runner in the group, but close.

    In 1996, Rick Hixson, another runner, incited change. He opened what was Bakersfield’s second bagel shop at the time and lobbied the group to move their starting point. The runners complied — and Hixon gave them a discount on coffee.
    
    But coffee isn’t what motivates dozens of runners to show up every day before dawn. Most want to maintain physical fitness, but even the health benefits of running have become a secondary motivation for setting alarm clocks so early.

“I came initially to get in shape. I had finished a master’s degree and decided to start getting up early instead of staying up late as I had done for most of my life,” said Damon Wilstead, 31, a pharmaceutical sales rep. “Now, I come more for the camaraderie.”

No one runs with an iPod. Conversation provides the musical cadence to which these runners run. “Sometimes (the running) becomes a counseling session,” said Linette Holliday, a 42-year-old entrepreneur. “Many of the world’s problems can be solved in an hour—and the great thing is that most of the time, your running partner is on your side.”

Most of the runners met through their mutual love of the sport, and many take running vacations together, camp and celebrate holidays as a group. They’ve nursed one another through illness, death, family crisis, and job loss, but they’ve celebrated births and marriages, too.

Dave Meek conducted a marriage ceremony for a runner who had lost his first wife, another runner, to a tragic accident. When the man was ready to marry again a few years later, the group attended his wedding—on the trail. “What an amazing sight to see 100 runners run up the hill just behind Hart Park,” said Meek, a 38-year-old educator, who also has his minister’s license. “The group surrounded him with love. The loss of his wife was hard for (our) whole team, but there was so much joy to see how the group came together and make a memory that will last forever for those who were there.”

The social benefits of running are just as important as the health aspect. Dr. Dean Haddock, a clinical psychologist and the executive director of Community Counseling and Psychological Services in Bakersfield, asserts that the social element might be the necessary justification to get the runners out of bed so early. “Socialization is a large part of this experience and is something many of us crave in today's society. I also think that being in shape with other like-minded people keeps one going and rewards the early workout,” said Haddock.

The Bagels and Blenderz runners aren’t alone. Since the 1980s, smaller groups have convened at locations across Bakersfield with the same approach to getting fit. The “doughnut shop group” meets on the northeast side of town on Mount Vernon and agrees that running with partners makes the long distances they run (10 to 12 miles some days) more fun. “I’ve forged some wonderful friendships. There is something special about running over hill and dale together that conversation just seems to flow smoothly,” said Bruce Deeter, 53, a retired civil engineer. “We talk about life, routine day to day things, tragedy, sharing 9/11 together, loss, laughter, and solitude, as well.”

Many of the doughnut shop runners connected because they needed routine and motivation to get fit, but like the Bagels group, the camaraderie became important, too. “I think people initially show up so they have someone to run with, someone to push them,” said Pam Boyles, a 44-year-old English professor at Bakersfield College. “Somewhere along the miles, it shifts: We show up because our friends are there.”

In other words, it’s about fitness and friendship, and to runners who’ve chosen to exercise as a group, you can’t have one without the other.

Jim Cowles, one of the self-professed “old guys” from the West High running days, says that these predawn people have enriched many lives over the years. “While the exercise has been good and beneficial, the real benefit is the good friends and good people who have come and gone or come and stayed,” he said. “There is something about running together in the predawn which brings out an openness and camaraderie that joins us.”