Background

This carving was commissioned by an employee of a marathon runner to celebrate the event for her boss. Jim wrote the following on the accompanying gift card:

It has been a real pleasure for me to create this caricature for you to commemorate one of the great achievements in your life. Believe me, I do appreciate this as a great achievement of "mind over matter" as I ran 10,000 meter and one-half marathons myself in my younger days in California.

Before my early retirement, I was an administrator over several hundred men and women in several drug rehabilitation centers and had little time or thought of ever doing anything artistic. However, after moving to New Hampshire I happened to pick up a piece of wood in my yard one day and turning it over in my hand, I thought, "this would make a good duck decoy," although I have never been duck hunting. I found that carving that duck with its delicate feathers came very easily to me. I enjoyed carving it so much that I carved several pieces and finally joined a local carving club to learn more techniques and even entered a few county fairs where I received several ribbons, including several blue ribbons.

When Susan visited my daughter Cindy at our home, she saw some of my creations and when she decided to give you a gift for your retirement it came to her mind that this is what she would like to give you. I had not taken on such an assignment before, but I thought why not. I asked her to give me a picture of you and a description of what you wore and your number and time (which is on your watch). I chose a large block of basswood and started in to achieve this result. It is made out of one piece of wood, with the exception of the cup. I anchored it to a mahogany base with two strong wood pegs, which I used after drilling holes in the base and glued them in with a strong glue, which I also used on the entire bottom of the shoe.

I hope this memento will help you to always remember the exhilaration you felt when you finished this race and said "I did it!"

Jim Hamilton

August 1999