News releases:    Current | 2007-08 | 2006-07 | 2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 News@Pomona highlights:    Current | 2007-08 | 2006-07 | 2005-06 | 2004-05     Pomona College News Highlights   8/29/08 Two new fall exhibits set to open at the Pomona College Museum of Art Fresh off the successful James Turrell at Pomona College and Project Series 35: Evan Holloway exhibits, the Pomona College Museum of Art is unveiling two new exhibits for the fall on Tuesday, September 2. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. The main exhibition will feature new works by Pomona faculty members and studio artists Sheila Pinkel, Mercedes Teixido, Mark Allen (image at left), and Sandeep Mukherjee. The works were created in a variety of media and techniques, including drawing, painting, photography and installation. The four artists will lead a tour of their work on Wednesday, September 17, from 4:14 to 5:30 p.m. “The faculty exhibition is a great opportunity for the College community and our broader audience to see the vitality of our art faculty’s practice,” says Kathleen Stewart Howe, director of the Pomona College Art Museum. “The research work of faculty members in the visual arts is encountered in the exhibition spaces of museums and galleries, in much the same way that the scholarly research of faculty in music and theatre manifests itself in public spaces.” Also opening September 2 is Project Series 36: Predock_Frane Architects, an installation from the award-winning architecture firm. Their installation, Inland Empire, reflects the artists’ interpretation of components of the built environment—regional depot buildings, big-box retail stores, mini-malls, housing and the corresponding network of transportation corridors—common in the decentralized landscapes of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, i.e., the Inland Empire. “Predock_Frane Architects are one of the most creative and thoughtful firms to emerge in recent years,” says Rebecca McGrew, the curator of the Museum and the creator and organizer of the Project Series. “Inland Empire reflects their philosophical investigations of several interconnected themes: the possibility of linking together oppositional strategies of fabrication, the contrasts between a high-tech/digital vs. low-tech/hand-crafted aesthetic, the site-specific nature and locational identity of each venue, and the blurring of traditional boundaries between art, design, sculpture and architecture.” Hadrian Predock and John Frane, who established Predock_Frane Architects in 2000 as a collaborative research and development architecture studio, will present a public lecture about their work at the Museum on Tuesday, September 23, at 2 p.m. The Pomona College Museum of Art is located at 330 N. College Avenue, Claremont. The Museum is open to the public free of charge Tuesday through Friday, from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, call (909) 621-8283 or visit the Museum’s web site. For more information on Pomona College’s Art and Art History Department and its professors, please visit www.art.pomona.edu.   8/26/08 Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch pens article in Kaplan-Newsweek college guide For the third year in a row, Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch has penned an article for the annual Kaplan-Newsweek How to Get Into College guide. His article this year, titled “The Process: Keep It Honest, Keep It Real,” examines the application process for students and their parents. “Students and their families have a wealth of information available about colleges and the admission process, and should take advantage of the resources,” writes Poch. “Understanding your talents and interests while working to understand the academic structures and offerings of a college is a vital step.” In the same 2009 college guide, Pomona is named as having one of the 12 top college rivalries—for applicants, that is. In the article, Pomona is paired off with Amherst, due to our similar tree-filled campuses, top-notch academics, and close relationships with nearby universities.  While Poch’s most recent article is not yet online, you can read his previous articles on the Newsweek site: "Don’t Be Bland" (2007)  and "The Search for Authenticity" (2008). Poch was also quoted another recent Newsweek article, “Grading the Test,” which examined the SAT’s writing exam.  To purchase a copy of the How to Get Into College Guide, visit Kaplan’s online store.   8/15/08 Poolside with Former Record-Holding Swimmer, Olympian and Biology Professor Marilyn Ramenofsky ’69 In many ways, Marilyn Ramenofsky ’69 has led two very different lives, though both reflect a deep love for movement and physicality. In her current career, she conducts academic research on the physiology and behavior of bird migration; in an earlier era, she was a freestyle swimmer setting world records and winning an Olympic medal by the age of 18. A national champion by 17, she set the world record for the 400-meter freestyle three times in 1964, pushing the record down to 4:39.5. After being accepted into Pomona in the spring of that year, Ramenofsky had one more errand to run before beginning college: the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where she won silver in the event. “It was pretty scary,” she says of the feeling of swimming on the world stage. “The pressure was incredibly intense.” Ramenofsky says her rapid rise to the international spotlight was largely due to her training at the Phoenix branch of the Amateur Athletic Union with legendary swim coach Walter Schlueter. “I had never been competing at that level before,” she says, “and then suddenly my times we’re dropping and I was shooting to beat the people on top.” At Pomona, the lack of a women’s swim team--a common phenomenon in the pre-Title IX days--caused Ramenofsky to shift her focus to other activities “It was probably a good thing,” she says, looking back, “because there were a lot of opportunities at Pomona and I was keen to get involved.” A botany/biology major, Ramenofsky conducted thesis work with professor Dwight Ryerson on algae structures, solidifying her love for both zoology and academia in general. After pursuing advanced studies in zoology, she taught for three years at Vassar before joining the faculty at the University of Washington, where she has been for the past 20 years. This summer she returns to the Golden State, having accepted a position as a biology professor at UC Davis. “It’s great to be back,” she says. “I’ve missed California weather!” Throughout her career, Ramenofsky has remained engaged with the swim world. She still swims as much as she can, and has been involved in coaching for numerous teams at the high school and college level, even leading the University of Texas to the state championships in 1971. She also has been following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with excitement and high hopes. “It’s great to see older women like [Dara] Torres still swimming,” she says with admiration. While her career could hardly be described as conventional, Ramenofsky views her two distinct paths as swimmer and academic as stemming from similar interests: “With both, I was focused and driven by some bizarre attention to detail,” she says. “The academic side of life is not all that different. It’s just more terrestrial than aquatic.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08 8/11/08 New Bike-Sharing Program to Start Fall Semester Taking sustainability to the streets, Pomona College is unveiling a new bike-sharing program that will build on our already strong on-campus bike culture. The new program will let students borrow state-of-the-art folding bicycles, creating endless travel possibilities for exploring Los Angeles via train and bike, or for just taking a ride around the Campus. “One of the things that the college is trying to do is raise awareness about the impact of our actions,” said Sustainability Coordinator Bowen Patterson ’06. “Promoting bike use is important, and this is another good opportunity for the college to diversify options for students.” The bikes fold in half in a matter of seconds and, while folded, weigh less than 25 pounds and measure in at just over two-feet-by-two-feet, making them perfect for commutes on busy city buses and Metrolink trains. Program organizers hope the bikes will help broaden transportation options for students participating in the popular Pomona College Internship Progam, which places students in offices across Southern California. Folding bikes in hand, students will now be able to take public transportation into Los Angeles and bike to work at offices previously too far to access on foot. And, with the recent opening of new grocery stores, shops and the movie theater in Claremont, the bikes can also help more students get off Campus and into the community. “Biking seems like a natural choice,” Patterson said. “It’s low cost, and there are so many activities and resources that are within a reasonable biking distance.” The brainchild of Spencer Honeyman ’08, the bike-sharing program got its start last spring when the then-senior brought folding bikes to the attention of the President’s Action Committee on Sustainability, an organization dedicated to promoting green issues on campus. The Committee, which manages an annual fund of $15,000 for infrastructure-based programs, helped Honeyman get the project off the ground. “This was a good opportunity to let people know about folding bikes,” said committee member Chelsea Hodge ’09. “It gives students the opportunity to try them out. It’s the experience that will be important.” Pomona forged a relationship with Dahon, a Duarte, CA-based folding-bike manufacturer. After sending a senior executive to meet with the Committee last spring, Dahon agreed to donate three bikes and six magnet-powered safety lights to the College. “Dahon got really excited about it,” said Associate Dean of Student Neil Gerard, who is overseeing the project. “I think it’s a good idea for a whole lot of reasons. It’s healthier to ride a bike than a car for everybody.” The details of the bike-sharing program—where the bikes will be stored and how students will check them out—are still in the works, but should be settled by the time students return to Campus for the fall semester.—Travis Kaya ‘10 8/4/08 Linda Alvarado ’73 Heads Renovation Efforts for Democratic National Convention Millions of people all over the world will be watching the results of her work, but Linda Alvarado ’73 isn’t fazed. As president and CEO of Alvarado Construction Inc., a Denver-based construction management firm that has worked on such big-budget projects as the Broncos’ Invesco Field, Alvarado is used to the spotlight. This past year, though, her company, along with Turner Construction and HOK Sport, was given the tall task of renovating the Pepsi Center in preparation for the Democratic National Convention on August 25. Working since July 7, Alvarado’s crew has 49 days to turn the basketball arena/hockey rink into a multi-purpose convention center equipped to accommodate 50,000 guests, 15,000 members of the media and 40 miles of cables. “There was a lot of pre-construction planning and a very short window of time,” Alvarado says. “But I’m confident.” Alvarado’s confidence is no surprise. She’s run her own company, Alvarado Construction, since 1976. In 1991, she successfully bid for co-ownership of the Colorado Rockies, becoming the first woman and the first Latino to own part of a Major League Baseball franchise. She was also one of the founders of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, served as Commissioner of the White House Initiative for Hispanic Excellence in Education, and has been recognized with several awards, including the United States Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year, the Horatio Alger Award, and the Revlon Business Woman of the Year. From as early as her days at Pomona, where she was an Economics major, Alvarado didn’t let her gender stop her from entering male-dominated fields. As a first-year looking for employment, Alvarado opted for landscaping instead of working at a more traditional desk job. When she applied for a position, the subcontractor said to her, “Boys do landscaping, girls do food services. Don’t you understand that you're going to be outside wearing Levis?" Alvarado was only further invigorated by that prospect--“Oh cool! I get to be out in the sun!” she thought--and says that those humble beginnings were essential to developing her career path. Alvarado says the DNC project is “not about politics” for her, but she expressed pride about being part of such a historic moment in Denver: The last time the city hosted the DNC, exactly 100 years ago, marked the first time that women and people of color served as delegates. “We have an African American presidential candidate, and a woman leading the construction,” she says. “Who would have thought a girl like me would be doing this?”—By Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 8/1/08 Pomona College Hires its First-Ever Sustainability Coordinator As part of continuing efforts to step up sustainability, Pomona has hired Bowen Patterson ’06 as Sustainability Coordinator, a new position designed to help improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and deal with other related issues at the College. The position represents the school's recognition of the need for an individual who can deal exclusively with sustainability concerns... Read more   7/29/08 Former Geology Professor John Shelton ‘35’s Photographs Exhibited in San Diego The San Diego Natural History Museum exhibit Aerial Portraits of the American West: Photographs by John Shelton is on view through November 2. Shelton '35, a La Jolla geologist, photographer and former Pomona College geology professor (1945-1960) passed away on July 24, 2008, at his home.     John Shelton's "San Andreas Fault, California" The 33 aerial photographs in the exhibit offer Shelton’s unique perspective of geologic formations and processes from Alaska to Baja California. The photographs were taken by Shelton over the course of several decades—from the 1940s through the ‘70s. The collection was shot with a military aerial reconnaissance camera, showing immense detail that would be almost impossible to capture today due to pollution’s effects on air clarity. “I didn't discover geology until my junior year," Shelton said in a recent interview with the La Jolla Light. That discovery came in Professor A. O. "Woody" Woodford's introductory geology course. As it was too late to change majors, he graduated with a dual degree in math and music. Upon Woodford's advice, he went on to Yale for graduate studies in geology and called himself a “student of the earth.” Shelton taught at Pomona, worked for the Strategic Minerals Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, and later served as an advisor on geology films. He began taking photos as a way to demonstrate geology to his students, and also as a way to combine his three passions: flying, photography and geology. From the 1930s through the 1990s, Shelton photographed evidence of continental drift, plate tectonics and other principles all over the globe. One famous photo shows an orange grove that straddled the San Andreas Fault; its perfectly aligned rows of trees were offset during an earthquake. Shelton, considered a key figure in geology, authored the introductory textbook Geology Illustrated, which was later named one of the most important 100 books of the last century by Scientific American. In 1993, Shelton received the American Geological Institute Legendary Geologist Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of Geology.” Shelton maintained close ties to Pomona College's Geology department, including returning to Campus as the annual Woodford-Eckis speaker in 1995, delivering lectures on "A Feel for How the Earth Works" and "The Aerial Perspective." In a letter sent out by the Geology department upon Shelton's passing, Professor Linda A. Reinen, chair of the department, said "John's myriad contributions to the teaching and learning of geology will continue to influence geology students for many years to come." For further information regarding the exhibition, visit the San Diego Natural History Museum web site at www.sdnhm.org or call (619) 232-3821. Article updated 07/31/08 7/23/08 Hillary Park ’92 in the Running for National Teaching Award This month Hillary Park ’92, a Spanish teacher at Grossmont High School in El Cajon, California, won the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Teacher Award for the San Diego area, making her one of 12 finalists for the institute’s prestigious National Teacher Award that will be presented at a ceremony in Washington D.C. on October 9. Hers is among a series of awards given annually by the HHF, a national organization dedicated to identifying leaders in the Latino community. Past HHF honorees include baseball player Sammy Sosa and singer Gloria Estefan. After graduating from Grossmont High in 1988, Park packed her bags for Pomona, where she was an English literature major and three-sport athlete. “I was definitely challenged in every aspect,” Park says, “with classes, discussions with peers, and expectations from professors and coaches,” Her coursework with Spanish Professor Maria Donapetry and her abroad experience in Sevilla, Spain, further solidified her desire to pursue a Spanish-related profession. After college, she returned to Grossmont, where she has taught Spanish for 14 years. Park has been praised for her innovative teaching methods, including Spanish-immersion trips to Costa Rica and weekly “charlas” (based on the Oldenborg language tables at Pomona) in which students have lunch with native speakers. “My approach is to engage students in the learning process and require them to be active learners,” Park says. She was nominated for the HHF award by one of her students, Diana Crafts-Pelayo, who won a college scholarship through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. Former Grossmont student Tyler Barbour ’09 seconds the endorsement: “Because of Hillary and her A.P Spanish language course, I decided to be an international relations major at Pomona and study abroad,” he says. “She has a passion for Spanish that is contagious.” For Park, the thrill in teaching stems from seeing progress in her students’ abilities and confidence levels. “I love when they finally begin to speak and construct conversations,” she says. “I try to lead them without showing them the exact path. I want them to make their own discoveries.” For more information on the HHF and its awards, visit www.hispanicheritage.org.--Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 7/22/08 Local Youth to Put on Play at Pomona College This Weekend Every summer, there’s a bit more drama on campus than usual. From the end of June through July, 50 local children ages 11 to 14 attend the Claremont School of Theatre Art (CSTA), a five-week program that provides classes on acting, movement and voice, and technical theater elements like props, sets and costumes. Each year, the program culminates with a performance. This year, the students will be performing Tales of Canterbury Thursday, July 24, through Sunday, July 27, at the Virginia Princehouse Allen Theatre at Pomona’s Seaver Theatre Complex. The play is a modern adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by playwright Kristina Sexton. The CSTA program is now in its 15th year and originally began when The Curtain Raisers of the Claremont Colleges, an organization devoted to encouraging volunteer activities to support the Claremont Colleges’ theatre programs, wanted to offer something for local young people. Pomona came on as a partner; each year, the CSTA program takes place in the Seaver Complex. “This is my eighth year as the producer for this program, and it’s awesome to bring these young people in from the community, and to give them a creative outlet,” says Cathy Seaman, program director for the Department of Theatre and Dance. “So we’re building not only skills, but self-esteem and confidence in oneself and kind of centering them and grounding them in self image.” Another aspect of the program that Seaman is proud of is its instructors, who are often recent graduates of the Theatre Department, which covers all five of the undergraduate Claremont Colleges. This year, Tim Gillette ’03 is teaching the technical theater class and his wife, Maggie Gillette, a Pitzer graduate, is the technical director. Andrew Doyle ’02 from Pitzer is also working with the program this year. “The biggest perk for me is to see these young people who have gained skills and knowledge in the theater and now they move to the practical realm,” says Seaman. “They come on board with an attitude [of wanting] to give back, and they’re just phenomenal instructors.” Performances of Tales of Canterbury will take place on Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m.; Friday, July 25, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, July 26, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and on Sunday, July 27, at 2 p.m. The box office will open 30 minutes prior to show time, but you can also reserve tickets by calling the reservation hotline at (909) 607-4396. Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for children ages two to twelve. 7/22/08 Art Exhibition by Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin Opens in Oceanside This past Saturday, the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) opened a new exhibition of the work of Pomona Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin titled “The Vibrant Edge: Paintings of Karl Benjamin from the 1960s, ’70s and ‘80s.” On display until October 19, “The Vibrant Edge” features the “Hard-edge painting” style, of which Benjamin was one of the founding fathers. The style is characterized by geometrical shapes, sharp edges and rich, full colors.     Karl Benjamin's "Markers" (1955). Benjamin, whose work has been showcased at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other places, was an art professor at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University from 1979 until his retirement in 1994. His exhibition, “A Conversation with Color: Karl Benjamin, Paintings 1953-1995,” was the inaugural show at the Claremont Museum of Art in 2007. The OMA is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CGU Art Department Chair David Pagel will present a slide lecture on Benjamin’s paintings at the museum on August 21 from 7 TO 9 p.m. Admission to the slide lecture is $5. For more information, please contact the OMA at (760) 435-3720 or visit the museum’s web site. --Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 7/18/08 Philip Armour ’07 to Present “Sideways Effect” Paper at Wine Economics Conference Philip Armour ’07 is no slouch. A triple-major in economics, mathematics and English literature while at Pomona, he spent the past year working for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and in the coming years will be keeping himself busy with a masters at the London School of Economics and then Harvard Law School. Such impressive accomplishments could make it easy to overlook his intriguing recent project: This August, he will be co-presenting a paper at the second annual American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) conference in Portland, Oregon. The event features economists from all over the country speaking on such enticing topics as eco-friendly “biodynamic wines” and the relationship between price and quality (“Do more expensive wines taste better?”). Armour and his Fed colleague Mark Doms will be presenting their paper examining the evidence behind the supposed “Sideways Effect,” which claims that since the release of the Pinot-glorifying, Merlot-trashing 2004 indie film (co-written by Jim Taylor ’84), Pinot has soared in popularity while Merlot has crashed and burned. Armour confirms the movie’s effect on Pinot Noir but casts doubt on its connection to Merlot. “That downward trend was actually a long time coming,” he says. For Armour, his passions for wine and economics developed from a very early age. “My mother and father are both passionate about wine,” he says, “so my childhood was filled with tiny pours of great Bordeaux and Burgundies.” Although he had dabbled in studying wine economics at Pomona, he says he never anticipated being able to do such research while working for the Fed this year. He soon found that fellow economist Doms shared with him a “curiosity about the driving forces in wine marketing and production,” and before long the two delved into some studies and uncovered publishable results. One abstract and introduction later, the pair’s submission was accepted by the AAWE and they were headed for P-town. Armour is looking forward to the Portland conference both for getting feedback about his work and getting the opportunity to learn more about the field. “Research in wine economics is fascinating and in such a nascent stage that there's a lot of potential for change in the near future,” Armour says. “It's an exciting time to be entering the debate.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08 7/9/08 Two Alums, Two Brothers, Two Books A novelist specializing in thrillers rents a Tuscan farmhouse unknowingly near the scene of grisly serial killings. A science writer, seeking to understand what it was like for someone to enter a Level 4 Ebola facility and have her spacesuit fail, entered the same facility…and had his spacesuit fail. (That wasn’t part of the plan.) Truth can be stranger than fiction, and both Richard Preston ’76 and Douglas Preston ‘78 have documented those truths in their most recent nonfiction novels, which were recently released, just two weeks apart.... Read more   7/18/08 Darin Leong ’99 Builds His Slack-Key Musical Reputation in Hawaii A Hawaii native raised on the slack-key strumming and falsetto hum of Hawaii’s music icons, Leong was nominated last month for two Na Hoku Hanohano Awards—Hawaii’s answer to the Grammy’s—placing him alongside some of that genre’s biggest names. “It’s really come full circle,” he says. “Just being in that company was incredible.” Leong grabbed nominations for Best Instrumental Album and Most Promising Artist for his second studio album, Five Years and Many Miles, which was released last September. The disc recounts Leong’s experiences in New York City where he relocated just one week before the September 11 attacks to pursue a law degree at New York University. The title cut, “Five Years,” looks back at the city’s recovery and his personal growth during his time there. While on the East Coast, Leong joined a tight-knit musical community of Hawaii expatriates, even getting the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall and Staten Island Stadium. “New York is a totally different place,” he says. “It really helped shape my perception of the world, my perception of music.” Last year, Leong moved back home to the islands, his album serving as a “calling card and introduction for the people of Hawaii.” And although he did not take home any trophies this year, he has garnered the attention of the local media and the support of key local musicians like singer Robert Cazimero, guitarist Barry Flanagan and ukulele icon Jake Shimabukuro. Leong specializes in slack-key, a 200-year-old technique invented by Hawaiian musicians “slacking” the strings of their guitars. Leong’s signature sound mixes traditional Hawaiian methods with New York panache and an extensive knowledge of the classical technique picked up while studying music at Pomona College. According to Leong, his time in Claremont was pivotal in shaping his sound and, of course, preparing him for law school. “The exposure was really useful,” he says. “It shaped me as a person and it shaped me musically.” While at Pomona, Leong studied under Professor of Music and professional guitarist Jack Sanders. Leong quickly made his mark at that time with his willingness to mix slack key style with more classical musical training. “He had an excellent technique and beautiful musicianship,” Sanders says. “I was thrilled to see that he was nominated for the Na Hoku awards.” As if managing his blossoming music career weren’t enough, Leong also works as an attorney in Honolulu, specializing in employment and labor law. It’s a bit different from the high-powered law firm he became accustomed to in New York, he says, but it’s an adjustment he’s happy to make. “I always wanted to move home,” he says, watching the surf from his office window. “It’s the community that I grew up in and it’s the musical community that I wanted to be a part of.” For more information on Darin Leong's music, visit his Web site at Hawaiiguitar.com.--Travis Kaya '10   7/1/08 Will Leer ’07 in the Running for Summer Olympics Will Leer ’07 is heading to the upcoming U.S. Olympic track and field trials to attempt to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The trials are taking place July 3 to 7 in Eugene, Oregon, where Leer has been training for the past 10 months. If he finishes among the top three runners, he will qualify for the U.S. team. Originally from Minnesota, Leer majored in mathematics and earned a minor in philosophy at Pomona. Predominantly a soccer player in high school, Leer got much more intensely involved in track and field at Pomona, competing all four years and earning repeated All-American honors. He won the 2006 Division-III indoor national title for the mile, and at the 2007 Division III outdoors nationals, he became the first male runner to win the 1500-meter and the 5000-meter event on the same day. Last year, he also finished 10th nationally at the USA Track & Field Championships. Former Pomona-Pitzer track coach Pat Mulcahy praised Leer for his positive attitude and unwavering commitment to the sport. “He’s trying to keep it going and explore what he can do,” Mulcahy says. “He’s probably gone further than he thought he could, but he’s taking it all in stride.” The first of the trials’ three rounds start July 3, with the second round on July 4 and the final round taking place on July 6.--Adam Conner-Simons '07 Update: Will Leer '07 placed fourth in the men's 1,500-meter final on July 6 with a time of 3:41:54. "I'm disappointed I didn't get third, but we're sending a great team....This meet was very successful for me. It has catapulted me to a new level as far as my career goes," he said in an interview with RunnersWorld.com. Visit RunnersWorld.com for more quotes and a video interview with Leer.