MARTY CHALFIN: I knew this marathon would be special. Race Director Tim Decker's idea was to start the race so that all marathoners andhalf-marathoners would be running during the eclipse. The night before therace, we had a very intimate pasta party with the most importantingredients: pasta, water, and new and old friends.

RICHARD BROUNSTEIN: I was surrounded by extreme marathoners - Marty"Marathon Man" Chalfin, who had run 100 marathons; Edson Sanches, who hadrun over 200 marathons; and Tim Decker (his name says it all). Because wewere such a small group, we became a little Aruba running team.

GAYE: Later that evening, a conversation started in a hotel lobby:"Uh...I'm not sure I'm ready to run this marathon." Then a second voice:"Yeah, won't it be awfully hot by 12:45pm? What if someone gets heatstroke?" Rising to a full crescendo: "Let's just run at 8:00am and tell Timat the meeting at 10:00am!" The now infamous Aruba runners' rebellion wasout of the chutes, changing the course of history and the start time of ourmarathon to 8:00am so it would be cooler - and so we could watch theeclipse with pina coladas in hand. The original instigators will gounnamed. Let's just say there was one contra rebel, one negotiator, and twosilent conspirators. And one Race Director who was pissed as all hell.

TIM DECKER: I basically flipped. All of my meticulous planning andforethought was being dismissed only hours before the event. I knew that itwould have been cooler during the eclipse because the Sun would be covered(du-uh). But I also felt that it would have been intriguing for runners toexperience the personal empowerment of running a marathon whilesimultaneously witnessing one of the most humbling wonders of nature overwhich we had no control. What were they thinking? I was the Race Director!Now, the main water re-supply I had arranged for was not going to beavailable, and the nearby store where I had planned to get water, Gatorade,etc. was not going to be open before the start. I no longer felt that Icould run the race myself and still do my job responsibly as Race Director.I was quite upset, but I didn?t want it to ruin my whole trip either.

MARTY: I went to sleep early (11:00pm), thinking that with a late start Iwould get lots of sleep. The phone rang. It was Tim.

RICHARD: At 11:30pm, Tim Decker, our fearless Race Director with whom I wassharing a hotel room, informed me, "There was a revolt! You're running at8:00am instead of 11:00am! Some of the runners didn't want to run in theheat!" This was the first race I had done where the runners were able tochange the start time so close to the start.

KAREN FISHER: I am still feeling guilty about the start time controversyand I am still hoping that Tim will one day forgive me.TIM: Karen has already promised to name a couple of children after me.

Negotiations continue.

MARTY: The following morning, Tim was running around trying to get all thepieces in place. The early start really made things harder for him, but hewas taking it in stride. The course was 6.5 miles out and back, which wewould run four times, plus a correction at the beginning. Tim repeated thedirections twice, and I repeated the names of the water-stop hotels: LaCabana, Wyndham, Hyatt, and the turnaround at the flags of the Holiday Inn.On your mark! Get set! Go! I jumped out in front, and for fifty feet I wasjumping up and down, shouting that I was leading the race! Quickly, we fellinto order: Dave (2:40 marathoner) in first, Edson in second, and myself inthird.

RICHARD: We started at 8:36am, so there was plenty of time to finish beforetotality...or so I thought. I felt strong at the start and the first twoloops were not too difficult. But even at 9:00am, it was hot in Aruba, andI mean HOT. Water stations - jugs of water and Gatorade hidden in thebushes at select hotels - were set up every 1-2 miles. We all carried waterbottles so we could drink constantly and refill at the water stops.

CINDY LENKIEWICZ: It was like a treasure hunt, and you hoped that you hadlistened carefully and were able to locate each water stop on the firsttrip out on the course.

MARTY: I didn?t see water behind the La Cabana sign, but my bottle wasstill full. I drank and ran some more. Soon, we were running next to atopless beach. My pace slowed to take in the sights.

GAYE: My job was to keep Marty on course in spite of the topless beach.

MARTY: It was a friendly course where the runners crossed paths all thetime, calling out each other's names. It seemed like a social event. Wewere the only spectators on the course. Actually, there were some workerswho couldn't believe that we were running in that heat! Edson and Gaye bothstopped as we filled up our bottles. I made sure to drink every 8-10minutes.

RICHARD: There was great camaraderie. We cheered for other as we passed oneach loop. It also helped that we were running alongside the beach and anincredibly blue ocean. I was able to keep the same pace as Marty for thefirst thirteen miles. By about 11:00am, I started my third loop and we werejoined by the runners that started their run at the original start time.(Tim was unable to reach them the night before.)

GAYE: The marathon was hot, but fun! I ran the half-marathon as #1, and wonit with a slow time (by our standards). But it was at least 80 degrees,with trade winds.

RICHARD: Around 11:00am, it got cloudy, cooler and even started to rainlightly. This was ironic because the race had started early because therunners were afraid of the heat. Now, the conditions were better at thetime the race was SUPPOSED to start than at the time the race DID start!

TIM: I hate to say, "I was right," but I must admit I felt a great sense ofsatisfaction when that brief rain shower passed. It had not rained in Arubain over three months, and not significantly so in almost a year! Meanwhile,everyone was increasingly concerned about our chances of seeing theeclipse. I remained hopeful that the more numerous breaks in the clouds onthe horizon would come our way.

MARTY: Soon, a guard in front of the Hyatt told me the eclipse had startedand invited me to use his special glasses to view the partial eclipse. Itwas my first look, and I could actually see the dark Moon taking a bite outof the Sun! I thanked him, and started running again. The finishing orderwas pretty well set: Dave in first, Edson in second, and if I finished, Icould have third. I just wanted to finish the race now! As I passed thebeach for the last time, I could smell the finish. Then I could see the finish! 4:53! My goal was to beat 5:04, my personal worst! Each finisherreceived a key chain and a finisher?s medal with a picture of the eclipse.I took a cup of Gatorade and then jumped in the pool to cool down.

TIM: The eclipse had started and I needed to get something from the hotelroom. In my haste to get back to the finishing/turnaround area, I plowedright into a construction barricade at the bottom of the stairs behind thepool and went down right in front of hotel staffers who were out watchingthe eclipse. They all turned to look at me and I felt like an idiot. Now, Iwas not only a race director (little 'r', little 'd') with no authority,but I was a klutz, too. What a day.

RICHARD: By my third loop, I started to feel the heat getting to me andstarted to walk occasionally. I wondered if I could really finish in lessthan five hours. The eclipse had started, so I broke out the speciallyshaded arc welder?s glass each runner received that enabled us to lookdirectly at the Sun without burning our retinas. I struggled to keeprunning for the last thirteen miles while I looked at this shrinking greenspot. (That's how the Sun looked through the shades.) I broke out thePowerGels and ran at a slower pace. Sharon, one of the late starters,started to pace me and encourage me so I wouldn't fall from heatexhaustion.

MARTY: It looked like everyone by the pool was watching a 3-D movie, withlittle cardboard glasses made with special lenses to allow them to look atthe Sun. Anyway, I had just finished a marathon, and it was time to eat!

RICHARD: I watched the moon slowly cover the sun. By my fourth loop, thePowerGel started kicking in and I felt stronger. I walked less and ranmore. It also started getting darker, but I couldn't tell if it was fromthe eclipse or from the clouds. I knew that totality would begin at 2:09pm,so I started running harder just to finish before that time.

CINDY: Watching the eclipse poolside was awesome! It was quite an eerieexperience, as it became dark at 2:00pm. The lizards ran under rocks and(yes, Karen) the birds stopped singing.

MARTY: The total eclipse was beautiful! A few planets were visible and Timnarrated the whole affair. (He really knew his stuff!) Tim pointed out theshadow of the leaves on the ground. The leaves were cut straight, but theshadows had "bumps" from the shadow of the Moon! The corona was visiblewithout the welder's glass for three minutes. It was kind of purplish,dusky and dark. It was not quite night, but certainly not day. The birdsstopped singing. Cars went by with their headlights on.

TIM: I majored in astrophysics in college, but had never witnessed a totalsolar eclipse "live". It was one of the most existential, unforgettable,and incredibly moving sights you will ever see. Everything we were taughtabout the vastness of the Universe suddenly became real. How could anyonehave thought the early astronomers were wrong? That was not some monster orman-made thing blocking the Sun up there - it was a hunk of rock about aquarter of a million miles away and it was completely oblivious to ourexistence. I felt a chill as the last sliver of Sun disappeared and the skyturned to night. Cheers and fireworks echoed in the distance. Suddenly, Isaw a Flyer singlet coming at us out of the darkness.

RICHARD: My big finale came just as I finished the marathon. The skies grewmuch darker - so dark that I couldn't see the road or the finish line. Tootired to notice the huge tree planter that separated me from the finishline, I promptly stumbled over it, almost dropping my protective welder?sglass (hey, this was a heavy piece of glass) and surprising the wholemarathon group. They were not prepared for a finisher to land on top ofthem! All I could do was sit and watch the stars and planets come out asthe Moon floated completely before the Sun. It was a truly cosmic 5:40finish!

GAYE: The eclipse was amazing, we saw all the partial phases and thediamond ring effect, and Tim showed us how to locate the planets visibleduring the eclipse and in the night skies later that week.

MARTY: Then, the three minutes were up. The rays of the Sun returned and wehad to use the welder?s glass again. And the birds started singing again!Following the eclipse was lunch and the awards ceremony. Awards ceremoniesare better when you take home some hardware! Tim got a round of applausefor putting on such a great event, where the marathoners took over thenight before and changed the start time of the race. Could you imagine theNYRRC calling up each runner the night before to start the NYC Marathonthree hours early?

CINDY: We shared stories that night at a post-race party at a localpirate-style restaurant.

GAYE: Somehow, every night at dinner, Marty had a birthday, courtesy of themanagement. The original instigators will go unnamed. Let's just say therewas one contra rebel, one negotiator, and six silent conspirators.

MARTY: My birthday is in December.

CINDY: The day after the race, a group of us (mostly all of whom wereFlyers) toured the more remote areas of the desert-like island in rentedjeeps and visited the Lighthouse, the Natural Bridge and the caves(complete with bats). The denouement of our touring day was a hike to thetop of a 541-foot mountain top to enjoy some cocktails and enlighteningconversation while we observed a beautiful pink toned sunset.

TIM: Hey, finally somebody was listening to me for a change! Panoramicviews and another great sunset rewarded our climb. My authority as racedirector had been usurped, but maybe I could settle for Tour Director, Ithought.

MARTY: I knew that I would have trouble coming down, but I had to go up!The sunset was beautiful, and Cindy and Karen held my hand on the way down.Everyone was really nice about my slow climbing down. That night, it wasdinner at the Hyatt. Somehow, the mariachis thought it was my birthdayagain.

CINDY: While on the island I also enjoyed the underwater world and did somescuba diving, with the most interesting dive being the "Antilla" - a400-foot German freighter shipwreck that you could actually swim through. Ifelt like I was exploring the Titanic!

GAYE: Marty took Richard, Amy, Karen, and myself snorkeling near ashipwreck on Saturday. We swam in a school of minnows, zebra fish, andlarger fish, too.

CINDY: It was a great trip and a unique experience! It was fun to share itwith some old and new friends. It was also fun to meet the other runnerswho had traveled to the event.

KAREN: I went to Aruba with two friends and came back with seven! Ithoroughly enjoyed all aspects of my Aruba adventure - plenty of sunshine;a fun race; a spectacular eclipse; an active, fun-filled sightseeingitinerary; mountaintop cocktails; beautiful sunsets; the water slide at theHyatt (complete with poolside bar) and great people. Looking forward to thereunion!

MARTY: Edson and I said goodbye to my new best friends in the whole world!Next total eclipse in Romania in August 1999!