I could hear the passion in his voice; see the fire in his eyes as he spoke of his determination to compete in the Olympic Mixed Doubles Three Legged Competition. This, of course, was before the IOC conducted drug tests. That's why, back then, Mixed Doubles Three Legged Racing was dominated by a pair of Russian Siamese Twins, Boris and Natasha Dumbrowsky. They had it all: The world record, three legs...and one very large pair of athletic shorts.

But, Edgar believed the Russians oddities could be beaten...if he could only find the right partner. And, as we talked, he made it clear, he thought I was the right person! Sure, he was only 5'3" and I was a rather lanky 6'1" -- large for a woman back then -- but, somehow (mostly because nobody else was around at the time) he felt we could do it. Seconds after I said "Okay," Edgar had lashed his left leg to my right one with tight elastic bands and we were hobbling to the start/finish line of the quarter mile track.

"Anything I should know?" I asked as we looked down on the straightaway, into the first turn. He looked up, way up, into my eyes and said: "Yeah, you should know that next summer, you're going to have 3.2 ounces of pure gold hanging around your neck." He clicked his stopwatch; and, yelled "GO!"

Our first few steps were clumsy...real clumsy. But, Edgar had his eyes on the prize. And, I was determined not to let that little man down. "Together, one-two!" He yelled. By the first turn, the rhythm of our steps fell into a regular beat -- kinda' like a cha cha. By the backstretch, my lungs were burning, but our cadence was strong. We were looking like a three-legged racing team to be reckoned with! I coughed up phlegm as we finished the first lap. "Two seconds off record pace!" Edgar yelled. We kept churnin' through lap two! Step-hop--step-hop-step! Step-hop--step-hop-step!"