At Columbia High School, I was a long-distance runner. Below (when I was 17 years old), I'm running at the ESSEX COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP RACE (about 150 participants). Columbia High School (my school) came in first. I finished in front of all of the big cats below (I'm #12, #11, Tom Gunzleman became the New Jersey half-mile champion). I broke the school record (12:30 for 2 1/2 miles).

I was awarded a full scholarship (tuition, room and board) to University of Pennsylvania, home of the "Penn Relays" (the track coach had visited me and sent me a telegram, "good luck on your SATs"). 

But I didn't accept the scholarship. I'd been running since I was four-years old and was exhausted.

I ran in Madison Square Garden a few months later in the Horace Ashenfelter two-mile handicap race against star college runners (I was the only high-school participant), and didn't do well. I realized if I was to become a runner at college, I'd have to "start all over again." 

Richard Koenigsberg