In granddad's steps
Gyle Tague's daughter, son-in-law and seven grandchildren will join him in the Gasparilla 5K this year.
By ARLEEN SPENCELEY, Times Staff Writer
Published January 18, 2008
Four days a week, Gyle Tague puts on a pair of running shoes. He laces up, looks both ways and runs 2 or 3 miles.
That's after an hour of yoga, before a walk with the dogs. It's before playing catch with them at the park.
It's also before his daily round of golf at the country club where he has been club champion twice, and senior champion twice after that. He does it every day. He's 83 years old.
His routine keeps him in shape, keeps him ready for February, when he'll fly to Florida from California to visit his family in Carrollwood Village, and to run the Gasparilla 5K.
He has flown in yearly to run the distance classic since 1979 and has missed only one or two races. Running is Gyle's legacy.
He ran track during college. He served in Guam, Bougainville and Iwo Jima during World War II. He worked as an elementary school principal for nearly four decades, and he has been running all his life.
"After a good run, you always feel better," he said. "You always feel exalted."
He has always tried to be a role model for Gayle, and her brother, Eric. Years ago, he started that by showing them how to run.
"I'll never forget the first time for my daughter," he said. "She was only in the first grade."
He took her to the high school track near their home in Ontario, Calif. In her little sun suit, with a beet-red face, she couldn't keep up. But she wouldn't give up, either.
Gyle ran ahead and finished the mile. Daughter Gayle plodded along. She finished all four laps.
But she grew older, and less fond of her father's running, since back then, nobody ran.
"If you saw somebody running on the street, you would look for the fire," she said.
Her father would ask her to run; she would always say no, until the day she gave in.
"I started to like it," she said. "It became a part of my life."
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His body is a temple, he says. So is his daughter's, and all seven of his grandchildren's. His wife, Thelma, is a retired schoolteacher. She doesn't like to run, but she does water aerobics. You need to take care of your temple, they say. That's why Gyle runs, and why Gayle runs, too.
Gayle's husband, Steve Young, isn't a fan of running. But he did his share of it when the Bucs drafted him. He and Gayle, who are both 54, moved to Tampa from California in 1976, and he played offensive tackle for a year. Now he runs Young Mortgage Funding. This year, he'll take part in the Gasparilla 5K, despite having both hips replaced last year.
All of Gayle and Steve's kids will take part, too.
There's Stephanie, 28, who lives in Queens, N.Y. She's a model who works for Paradox, the New York chapter of Models for Christ, an international Christian organization for professionals in the fashion industry. She doesn't love to run, she says, but she loves how it feels to finish a race.
Parker, 25, lives in Manhattan. He's a photographer of fashions, weddings and bands like the Almost, Copeland and Anberlin.
Peter, also 25, works for a motivational business seminar, restores bicycles and turns them into fixed-gear bikes, or track bikes without brakes like riders might use in the Olympics, and rides them around Tampa with friends.
Nathan, 20, is the drummer for rock band Anberlin. He tours and records, and when he's home, he rides the bike Peter built for him and takes photos with his collection of old cameras.
Camille, 18, is with the Tampa Bay Synchrays, a team of synchronized swimmers that placed fourth in its international meet last year. She has been on the team for 11 years. She takes jazz dance and ballet classes, swing dances and loves to bike. She hopes to someday swim and dance for a Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas.
Nolan, 13, is a Star Wars fan, and a star on his Special Olympics swim team. He collects light sabers, rides horses at Bakas Equestrian Center and, as he has Down's syndrome, has earned another measure of his grandfather's respect. "You've got to give him so much credit," Gyle said.
Carolyn, 10, is a prodigy in the kitchen who watches cooking shows instead of Saturday morning cartoons. She dances tap, plays piano and runs on a regular basis. Dad swears she'll be an executive chef in Manhattan someday, making desserts like the creme brulee she made for the family when everyone came home for the holidays.
Gayle homeschooled the children. While she provided their education, they say they learned determination and discipline from their grandfather.
That, Nolan adds, and "working hard."
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With the exception of Nolan, all of Gyle's grandchildren have run at least one Gasparilla race.
It'll really be something, he says, to run this year's race with all seven. Lately, his knee has been bothering him. Sometimes, he wears a brace. If the knee gets worse, he said, this Gasparilla might be his last race.
"I hope it blesses him," Parker said. "I hope he can see how much we appreciate what he's passed on to us."
Running is his legacy, Parker added. For Gayle, it's tradition.
She's run 28 Gasparilla races. And most of them, she's run with her father.
Two or three days a week, after rest time and before dinner, she laces up a pair of white and blue Asics.
She stretches. Training is easier now than it used to be, she says. It's easier since she started taking ballet.
She thanks God for protecting her from injury, praises him for strength. She prays for her friends, her kids, her father.
Someone needs to keep going when he can't.
The sun starts to set.
She walks out the door and jogs into the street. There, she runs.
Arleen Spenceley can be reached at 813 269-5301 or aspenceley@sptimes.com.