Recreation writer, newsroom leader Van Allen runs off into the distance

Everyone has their rules to live by. I have two recreation-related rules.

First, I do not climb aboard anything that has a mind of its own. Bikes, motorcycles, airplanes, jet skis – all OK. Horses? Forget it.

Second, running is always the last option when attempting to get from point A to point B.

Still, I have admiration for people who scoff at those rules.

Jackie Van Allen is one those people. She runs … and runs … and runs. She is our newsroom administrative manager and for the past year and a half has written a weekly feature for our recreation page.

She has energy to spare. Even when she’s walking around the office, you have to go up a gear or two just to keep up.

Two weeks ago, on a whim, she ran from the Riverfront Park clocktower to the Mt. Spokane summit. Just 34 miles. I get tired driving that distance.

Last year Jackie asked me if she could write stories on recreation sports. I said sure, but wondered to myself how she would pull that off. I never should have doubted her.

As the newsroom manager, Jackie wears dozens of hats. Still, you would never know she was overburdened. One thing you could always count on from Jackie, no matter what, was a smile. She’s that person in the office that you hope will never leave.

Sadly, for us, Jackie is moving to Seattle. This Friday’s story on a group of cyclists that meet every week on the South Hill will be her last.

Everyone in our office will miss her and will probably have Jackie withdrawals for months. But readers of the recreation section will miss her, too.

Jackie wrote a lot of stories about running, but she also wrote about other things – rugby, flag football, fencing, hockey, snowmobiling, volleyball, cycling…

She championed athletes who would otherwise receive little or no publicity.

She was busy, but she always found time to write. She never passed up a chance to tell stories about local athletes who compete for the joy of competing. People, like her, who constantly push themselves to greater heights.

Olympics coverage

Today’s feature on Athol, Idaho, shooter Hattie Johnson by John Blanchette will be the first of several stories about local athletes or coaches at the Athens Summer Olympics. The graphic that accompanies that story helps explain the sport of shooting.

During the Olympics we will preview sports and use the Associated Press graphics to explain each sport. Hopefully, this will help the reader follow each sport no matter how foreign it is to most of us in Spokane.