Encore December 2014

ENCORE Wednesday

December 17, 2014

A Guide to a FulďŹ lling Senior Life in Whatcom County

Medical procedure allowed man to continue world class athletic competitions.

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A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

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Bellingham cyclists to compete in National Senior Games Tarleton and Fine ride around 100 miles per week as part of local cycling club

By Cameron Van Til sports@lyndentribune.com

WHATCOM — Bellingham cyclists Leah Tarleton and Nancy Fine had qualified for the National Senior Games before, but they were especially eyeing 2015 as their year to compete in the national competition.

With Tarleton reaching 80 years old this year and Fine 70, both have now moved up an age bracket, placing them among the youngest in their respective categories. So after qualifying again last summer, the two are planning to compete in next summer’s National Senior Games.

“We’ve been looking forward to this for eight years,” Tarleton said. “We decided we’d go now because we’re in the prime part of our (age bracket). This will be the time that we’ll hopefully be the youngest and strongest in our categories.”

Added Fine: “We figured if we had any shot at all, it would be this year.”

To qualify for the National Senior

Leah Tarleton and Nancy Fine celebrate together after a cycling competition. (Courtesy photo)

Don’t let pain keep you off the

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Games, one must finish in the top two of state competition, which Tarleton and Fine did for both the five-kilometer and 10-kilometer time trials last summer in Olympia.

The 2015 National Senior Games will take place in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, with the 10-kilometer time trials set for July 11 and the five-kilometer time trials for July 12.

“Their attitude is just like an Olympian,” Tarleton said of the Senior Games’ competitors. “They’re just hopeful for everybody else and hopeful for themselves. It’s really an exciting kind of thing to do, at any age.”

Having the two races on separate days will be a welcome change for Tarleton and Fine. At the state competition, the 10-kilometer race was a mere 20 minutes after the five-kilometer race, Tarleton said.

“It wasn’t ideal conditions,” Tarleton said about the qualifying in Olympia. “When you’re doing a five-kilometer race, you’re just running on fumes. You must start out as fast as you can, and your body never really catches up to the exercise you’re doing.

“You’re doing it anaerobically — without oxygen — and when you get to the end, you almost can’t even get off your bike. And then we had to do the 10-kilometer race.

Fortunately the races (at the National Senior Games) will be on separate days.”

Both Tarleton and Fine are elite cyclists

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

ENCORE now, but they both have a background in other endurance sports before moving to Bellingham.

Tarleton was a marathoner who competed in several different major events in California, while Fine was a swimmer who went to the U.S. Masters Swimming national championships.

But as Tarleton was packing to move from California to Bellingham, her garage door fell down on her back.

“That ended my running days,” Tarleton said. “So I just fell into cycling because people say that if you can’t run, you can cycle. So that’s what I started doing.”

Meanwhile, Fine was looking for something to do after moving to Bellingham. Fine had hurt her knee, which kept her not only from swimming, but from skiing too.

So she got into cycling, thanks in part to Tarleton.

“I didn’t have the right bike — I didn’t have anything — and Leah kind of took me under her wing,” Fine said.

The two joined a local cycling club, but doing so wasn’t just a matter of showing up.

“You can’t just be a rider,” Fine said of the group. “You have to be a good rider.”

The group, consisting of approximately 20-30 cyclists, rides three times a week — meeting twice in Skagit County and once in Ferndale. They typically total around 100 miles per week.

“A lot of our friends can ride much better than they can walk,” Fine said. “It’s really

funny to see all of the old people get out of their cars and then get on these bikes and just roll away.”

Although much of the group consists of younger men, the 80-year-old Tarleton is one of the club’s best bikers, Fine said.

“I think she’s more phenomenal than anything,” Fine said. “Her pace is very good for a woman her age, or any age.”

Tarleton credits much of her success to the supportiveness of the group.

“Everyone wants to help you do your intervals or whatever you’re training for to try to get faster and stronger,” Tarleton said.

“They have a great attitude.”

And it was due to a fellow club member — one who was already racing competitively — that Tarleton and Fine got into the competitive side of cycling.

“I’d never thought about being competitive,” Tarleton said. “But Nancy and I were doing intervals (one day) and this guy said he thought we should try out for nationals.

“So he actually took us to the competition the first time and competed himself, and that’s how it started.”

Tarleton has since become the oldest person to do the Mount Baker Hill Climb, an annual race up Highway 542, the Mount Baker Highway. But after participating in the event the last seven or eight years, last summer’s race was cancelled.

That didn’t stop Tarleton and Fine, though.

“My family was coming from all over

and we were going to ride it together,” Tarleton said. “So Nancy organized it for my friends and family to join us and we all went up the mountain together.”

T a r l e t o n and Fine also travel to Europe typically once a year to go cycling together.

The two have cycled in Italy, France, Poland and Corsica.

“We go on these trips that are unguided and they’re so cheap,” Tarleton said. “They give you a bike, a hotel to go to, a map and an emergency number.

“You go from one place to the next, and you get lost most of the time. But that’s most of the fun.”

And as Tarleton explains, so is the process of constantly trying to better oneself.

“If you don’t have a goal, life is really bor-

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ing no matter what,” Tarleton said. “So when you start riding a bike, the idea is you’re going to ride faster, or you’re going to ride a lighter bike and go up hills faster.

“You set these goals for yourself, you train and you work together. And it’s the part of doing it together and succeeding that is so fun.”

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

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Ed Henken ends 46 years on Lynden fair board Former county engineer also has deep ties to his successor Ron Polinder’s family

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

Ed Henken, left, and Ron Polinder talk near the draft horse barn on the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds. Henken had a relationship with the Polinder family from his youth that started him on a lifetime of draft horse raising. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

WHATCOM ­ — A connection between the Polinder and Henken families goes way back, preceding even Ed Henken’s record 46 years on the Northwest Washington Fair board of directors.

So it’s extra meaningful to the two Lynden families that the person replacing Ed on the board is Ron Polinder.

Voting by fair association members happened a few weeks ago.

Henken, raised in Lynden, was a young civil engineer working back on his home turf in the 1960s, first for the city of Bellingham and then Whatcom County. That meant he could also pursue what had been his boyhood love of the big draft horses of Whatcom County.

He remembers joining other kids who could get into the Lynden fair for

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

ENCORE free and press their noses against the netted wire at the front of the grandstand to see the mighty six-horse hitches perform.

“I used to just drool at seeing those drivers drive, and that’s what got me interested,” Ed said in an interview that included Polinder family members.

Young Henken, a city boy, started hanging around the Polinder farm south of town where grandpa Fred Sr. was still very much devoted to his sturdy Clydesdales over tractors. “(Ed) just soaked up the information like a sponge, and asked a lot of questions,” said Sherm Polinder.

(Fred Polinder Sr. had been a Lynden fair director in earlier years and his son Fred Polinder Jr. was to have his own long stint later.)

Grandpa Polinder and his horseman understudy once traveled together up into Alberta to scout out the possibilities of entering into show competitions there, and Henken also remembers other trips into lower Canada to check out horse carriages that would lead to Polinder’s collection now on exhibit in the Lynden Pioneer Museum.

Henken earned his engineering credentials at the University of Washington, then served a military stint as a public health service officer based in Kansas City. Even then, he planned his inspetion trips into the upper Midwest region in order to end up close to a Clydesdale breeder and check out his stock.

It wasn’t long then, as Henken settled back into Whatcom life and work on property off Northwest Road, before he had his own team of Clydesdales, acquired in one big deal from the local Weidkamp family. “I never owned a horse in my life until I had 11 of them,” Henken said.

An engineer by day, he also milked a few cows on the side for a while.

Put all that together and it seemed a smart move to an older set of fair board leaders in 1968 that Henken, then just age 32, should join the board for his broad knowledge and even temperament. Having obtained a stock of membership, he was elected.

“I had always been interested in the fair,” Henken said.

Over his tenure on the board, the August fair grew in number of days to its current Monday through Saturday run, typically drawing 200,000 visitors. It attracted star entertainment to the grandstand including Loretta Lynn (twice), Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood (unannounced together, 1997) as well as a popular demolition derby and a PRCA rodeo. Buildings were added, among them the Expo Building, Henry Jansen Agricultural Center, Mt. Baker Rotary Building and Washington Tractor Arena.

But through all the necessary development, Henken definitely was a voice for keeping the local agricultural roots of the Lynden fair.

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Along with the Polinders and plenty others in draft-horse-rich Whatcom County, Henken is well versed in the lingo of “wheel team” and “swing team” and can speak at length of his best horses in certain hitch roles over the years.

His bay-colored Northwest Clydesdales could be counted on in the fair’s draft horse barn each August, and the stylish steeds, with Ed at the reins, also pulled an LTI-sponsored wagon in plenty of regional parades.

As county engineer Ed often needed to attend County Council meetings and sometimes answer questions at the microphone. But he would spend any down time of the evening paging through his horse magazines. He retired after 26 years in the job at the end of December 1999.

With his institutional memory Henken, 79, can tell you that the fair’s draft horse barn was built post-World War II and that it was moved in three pieces to where it sits today in order to make way for construction of the larger light horse barn. He can also describe a few specific incidents of drivers (not himself ) losing control of their horses while doing shows in front of the Lynden grandstand.

Longevity in community engagement seems to run in the family. Ed’s father, Art Henken, was associated with the Star Market at 401 Front St. that still See Henken on C8

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

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Senior getaways go both near and far (San Diego) Through Whatcom Senior Tour Program WHATCOM — ­ These are upcoming trips available through the Whatcom Senior Tour Program, a nonprofit community cervice provided by the Whatcom Council on Aging.

To sign up for any of them, call to Cheryl of the Bellingham Senior Activity Center at 733-4030 ext. 1015, or stop by 315 Halleck St., Bellingham.

“A Tribute to the Beatles,” Jan. 20, 2015 The Mount Baker Theater presents this live Broadway spectacular with the music of the Beatles. Dance to the Beatles' classics such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Hard Day’s Night,” “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude.”

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The Broadway musical “Dirty Dancing” comes to Seattle’s Paramount Theater Jan. 31, and a Whatcom Senior Tour Program group will go to see it. (Courtesy photo/Paramount Theatre)

Broadway musical “Dirty Dancing,” Jan. 31, 2015 This classic Broadway hit is full of sensational dancing and heart-pounding songs like “Hungry Eyes” and “(I’ve Had)

Man’s story, after surgery, a medical marvel County hospital can help athletes, or anyone, get back into top form

WHATCOM — In many ways, 65-yearold Richard Holloway of Bellingham is a typical Pacific Northwesterner. He’s retired from refinery work and loves outdoor sports.

A world-class runner in his 20s, Holloway began competing as a professional triathlete after adding cycling and swimming to his regimen. Now, like many active athletes his age, he has experienced the effects.

In 2011, Holloway was swimming in Lake Padden when he felt a “pop” in his lower back. He completed his workout, but was in severe pain over the next few months as he continued training and racing. When his leg went numb, Holloway visited Dr. David Baker — of Fourth Corner Neurosurgical Associates and PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Spine Care Center — following a friend’s recommendation.

“She told me this guy is the best in the country,” said Holloway. “So there was

no choice — I had to get back to where I had been.” That would be a tall order, as by then Holloway had won national and world championships.

Holloway was training four to six hours a day for the next World Cup, but his real work began after Dr. Baker operated in March 2012 to fuse Holloway’s L4 and L5 vertebrae. Holloway’s research indicated no other elite athlete had ever returned to championship status after surgery, but his goal was to win a World Cup race and a national championship in 2013.

Holloway began daily workouts — on a stationary bike, swimming, water running — plus heat, ice and electromagnetic stimulation. And with Dr. Baker’s blessing at six months after surgery, he resumed running. Holloway was on his way.

Whether a world-class athlete or a beginning walker, Holloway said that those who partner with a care provider and commit to their own health and recovery have the best chance for a great outcome — whether that is to walk without pain or, as Holloway did 18 months after surgery, win the USA National Championship with the world’s best time for an Olympic distance triathlon.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Ferndale Record

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Henken: Longest-serving board member in fair history Continued from C5 delivered groceries to its customers (including the Polinders) in the old-style way into the 1970s. “When I turned 16, they put me to work delivering groceries,” Ed remembers. And Art also served on the Lynden City Council for a tenure that not even Ed’s can beat — 49 years, to his death at age 89 in 2003. In honor of him the Lynden Library is officially named the Arthur Henken Building.

Jim Baron, fair manager, confirmed that Ed Henken is the longest serving board member in the fair’s 104-year history.

“I had the privilege of serving with him first as a fellow board member in the 1980s and, of course, more recently as the manager hired by the board. I always appreciated the leadership Ed provided to the board. When he served as board president, he was always very organized and efficient. Serving the fair over four decades, he saw many changes, but always his focus was on what was going to be best for the people that come to the fair,” Baron said.

For the most part, care of 11 Northwest Clydesdales is now in the hands of son Raymond and especially daughter-

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Ed Henken still interacts with the bay-colored Clydesdales on his family’s Northwest Road property. (Calvin Bratt/ Lynden Tribune)

in-law Monica still on the same family property on Northwest Road. Monica

has developed a new twist on the use of draft horses — she trains and exhib-

its them as a drill team doing choreographed maneuvers together.

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