Father Puts Family’s Best Feet Forward

Afather can only be expected to take so much from a son. He could overlook a broken curfew. And perhaps he could ignore a prank like filling the neighbor’s swimming pool with shaving cream.

But when Glenn Gaesser’s 15-year-old son began beating him in distance races, he had to put his foot down.

Followed quickly by the other foot.

Gaesser and his son, Mike Glaze, were among more than 1,000 runners in the Foot Locker Partners National Championship race at Griffith Park that attracted top competition such as Olympian Ruth Wysocki.

The runners were paired with immediate family members in eight divisions. Scores were determined from combined times.

Only a week before the race, Gaesser and his son, both of Sherman Oaks, decided to enter the race. They ended up as the top Valley finishers, placing third in the father-son division. Gaesser ran a 28:47.09 over the five-kilometer course last Saturday, while his son ran a 28:54.54 for a combined score of 57:41.63.

Gaesser, who had spent many days this year watching his teen-age son run past him, was very satisfied with their order of finish.

“That was one of my incentives,” Gaesser said. “I found over the spring and summer he was whipping me in the longer races. So I decided to put an end to that uprising.”

Glaze is a student at Notre Dame High. He’s only a sophomore, but is already turning in impressive times on the varsity cross-country team. Gaesser, 35, is an exercise physiologist at Occidental College in Glendale. His specialty is designing athletic training techniques. He’s been a runner for more than 20 years.

The two train together and on any given weekend you can find them running five to eight miles around Woodley Park in Encino. Gaesser said he gives his best training advice to his son.

But knowing Gaesser’s competitive drive, and in light of the seven-minute beating he handed his son last week, perhaps Gaesser doesn’t give Mike all of his best tips.