You’ve seen him around town–a lone, lean figure clad in skin-tight, insulated clothing–running, machinelike, on the snow and ice of Marquette’s roadways and sidewalks.
Gotta be a crazy man, right?
No, he’s marathoner Tracy Lokken, a homeboy out of Gwinn High School and NMU. He’s a serious marathoner, a national-class marathoner.
His best time, achieved last year, is 2:21. So you’re not all that impressed, considering that the world record is 2:03, a full 18 minutes faster than Lokken.
Not so impressive until you consider that Lokken is…48. Forty-eight. That’s about the age that most of us are plopping down in our La-Z-Boys, guzzling six-packs, shoving Cheetos down our throats, patting our burgeoning bellies and watching eight hours non-stop of NFL football on TV.
Lokken’s won the national Masters (40 and over) marathon five times. His marathon time is four minutes off the national record, five minutes off the world record. The world record for 50-54 year olds is 2:29, eight minutes slower than Lokken’s best. In other words, in two years, our Marquette marathoner is likely to set a world record.
The next time you see him out on the streets (he runs 100 miles a week), battling the cold, snow and ice, give him a wave or a honk. Even though he doesn’t need it. He says running, even when it’s frigid, is just plain fun.
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Now, the latest on the now empty café space at Peter White Public Library:
Library director Pam Christensen says she’s had other potential vendors contact her since Tu Kaluthia closed down two weeks ago.
Whether a new vendor will be chosen (and who) will be up to the Library Board which meets January 21st. Christensen says if a new café does move in, it likely wouldn’t be until March or April because they’re now installing new cabinets, counters and a sink.
Regarding the departure of Aza Wolfcale and her Tu Kaluthia café, Christensen says the problem was simply that the county’s building and zoning officials determined that Wolfcale’s use of a convection oven was a violation of code because of ventilation problems. The oven had to go.
With that, Christensen says, Wolfcale asked to break her lease, and her request was granted.
Whoever does move in will have to do food preparation off-site with just a microwave, crockpot and refrigerator on-site. That’s about it.
It’s not likely to be a huge moneymaker for either the café owner or the library.
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No such problems for the recently expanded Aubrees Pizza on Washington Street.
Aubrees opened its bar and doubled its space on December 10th but tonight (New Year’s Eve) they’re calling their grand opening. That means happy hour all day long, pizza by the slice and hot chocolate all night long, and complimentary sparkling wine at midnight.
The bar is impressive. Comfortable, spacious, TV’s all around, probably the biggest sports bar in town, although nothing close to the massive Buffalo Wild Wings out on the highway.
The pizza? It’s good, although you could probably say that about a dozen other venues in town. How’d we get to be so good at pizza?
You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com