By Hal Walter
For the first Sunday in a month of them, there is no long training run on tap for cross-country or track. There is no homework. There will be no evening commute to Leadville to deliver Harrison Walter to Colorado Mountain College.
The Blur, it seems, graduated from CMC this past Friday with an Associate of General Studies degree and proficiency certificates in welding.
It’s really a strange feeling and I am still processing it all. For the past two years life around here has revolved around Mary and me supporting Harrison through college. We’ve put about 30,000 miles on vehicles in doing so, and untold mileage on our brains. We knew it was a big risk sending him to Leadville to live in a dorm, but anything worth doing is worth the risk of failing. We also didn’t have a clue what we were getting ourselves into.
Between the ages of 62 and 64 I spent about 150 nights in a dorm room. We traveled to six states to watch Harrison and teammates run for the CMC Eagles. As his academic aide I learned how to operate Canvas and Basecamp. I read textbooks alongside him and helped guide him through countless assignments. During both summers I coached him through his running workouts.
All of this was out of the belief that a person on the autism spectrum deserved a shot at a college education and experience. He graduated teetering on the brink of the Dean’s List with a GPA of 3.46 (final grades are not yet in). It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns, as he is surely on another Dean’s List for the number of write-ups received, all related to autistic behaviors.
As an athlete he left CMC with the school record for the track 10K, and runner-up best times for the 5K and 3K. In cross-country he holds CMC’s third-best cross-country 5K and fifth-fastest 8K, which he ran at the NJCAA National Championships in Huntsville, Ala. He also won the 5K Colorado Cup Snowshoe Race, hosted annually by CMC.
He received the running team’s Most Valuable Runner Award, as well as an award for his GPA and a letter.
And when he wasn’t studying or running he worked part time at Community Threads in Leadville.
There are too many people to thank in this space, but we owe a world of gratitude to his teammates and fellow students, coach and professors, faculty, staff and administration for the patience, support and compassion over these two years. There is a book in the works.
Perhaps rather than a month of Sundays it was an era of Sundays. The future, as Tom Petty sang, is wide open.
Mad Blog Media 
Great photo! Great young adults! Even greater Walter Family!
As someone once said …. “The chestnut doesn’t fall far from the oak tree” ….. or something like that!
Best wishes for continued success, adventures, and …. can’t wait for the book.
Tom Petty had it spot on! ”The future is wide open!” Go Walter Clan!” :-)
Hal, it seems your answer to the question of why is “why not?” Congrats to you and Mary!
Chapeau to you and yours, Hal! And especially to Harrison for breaking that tape at the academic finish line.
Thanks, gents. Hal will probably chime in at some point. At the moment he’s diving back into his day job as a running coach at Custer County School, preparing for the pack-burro racing season, and working with The Graduate on that book he mentioned.
See this one?
https://cyclingindependent.com/your-favorite-bike-company-is-struggling
Yeah … there’s basically nothing new there, not for anyone who follows the grim tidings over at Bicycle Retailer. In addition to the usual Shit Rolls Downhill and the IBD is Living in the Valley story, the customer has been conditioned to expect sales with massive price reductions — Everything Must Go! — and thus sits on his/her hands waiting for the Deal of the Century (or the millisecond) instead of buying and riding.
The good people at Merry Sales/Soma Fabrications have been running periodic sales in the first half of this year, bargain prices on items that are already pretty reasonably priced. They just wrapped one of them, 25 percent off Soma frames and forks, and I was sorely tempted because I like the look of their Pescadero. But I am seriously overbiked and fear the Wrath of Herself.
But I’d encourage any of you in the market for new stuff to give ’em a look-see. Good people, good stuff, good prices.
Word brother! I have had 3 Soma bikes, a Smoothie, Saga, and Double Cross Disc. No disappointments there. And buying the frame and fork and building it your way is the only way to go for me.