A3
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021
Cemetery: Leamy enjoys having students around for the help, company
he expected, Leamy said,
but since then, the work has
been an endless amount of
restoration and preservation .
Last year, the couple
received a grant through
the Oregon Commission on
Historic Cemeteries to assist
in the restoration of grave-
stones in the oldest area of
the cemetery .
While Leamy is grateful
for the volunteer outreach
he has received , help has
been hard to come by over
the past year and a half.
“In these COVID times,
volunteers are few and far
between,” he said.
Continued from Page A1
She estimates she has
already
sprayed
over
two hundred gravestones
with D/2 — the nontoxic,
algae-eating
cleaning
solution.
As for the other two
seniors, the chance to glance
into the past drives their
intrigue .
Noah thinks of the cem-
etery like a library — each
gravestone like a single
book, with the engraved
words giving a quick
glimpse into someone’s life,
similar to a summary on the
back cover of a novel.
Sanchez thinks of him-
self as a history nerd. While
considering a potential
career as a mortician, he fi g-
ured the project would look
good on his resume.
Leamy enjoys having the
students around, he said,
both for the help and the
company.
A place of signifi cance
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
High school senior Aidyn Noah, left, and cemetery owner Mike Leamy walk through Greenwood
Cemetery.
When Leamy and his
wife, Lynda, bought Green-
wood Cemetery in the
1980s, he knew next to
nothing about cemeteries.
In fact, he said, he had only
been to one funeral in his
life.
It was not exactly what
Leamy estimates that
around 4,000 gravestones
need improvement , while
the fl at markers need peri-
odic attention, as well.
While some just need some
scraping and cleaning,
older and broken-down
gravestones require exten-
sive eff ort .
Due to the history of
Greenwood, which opened
in 1891, Leamy views it as
both a place of signifi cance
for families, but also as a
place of record.
“You are everlastingly at
it and personally, I view this
as a stewardship — I am the
caretaker,” he said. “Even-
tually, there will be some-
one else who is taking care,
who is the custodian of our
history.”
When the students aren’t
at the cemetery , the work
crew consists of Leamy and
his wife. But he hopes the
students’ love for restoration
will inspire other volunteers
to off er their labor.
“Over the decades —
(Greenwood) is 130 years
old — it has a checkered
past. But we look to the
future, and that is the value
of the kids doing their senior
project here — looking to
the future,” Leamy said.
Spear: Attributes his win to more training miles without overtraining
Continued from Page A1
A running family
Spear’s parents were run-
ners, participating in the
Hood to Coast race in the
early ‘80s when the relay fi n-
ished in Pacifi c City.
Growing up, Spear went to
Jesuit High School in Beaver-
ton. H e came to the coast in
the summer to visit his grand-
parents, who lived in Seaside.
His fi rst sport was soccer,
which he said he knew he
wasn’t very good at, but he
found he had endurance and
enjoyed running.
He
switched
to
cross-country.
Spear was infl uenced by
the high level of coaching
and performance. “The win-
ter of sophomore year I kind
of started ramping it up and
increased each year, just trying
to do a little bit more,” he said.
The Jesuit team was so
competitive Spear didn’t
Portland Marathon
Matt Spear runs on the course
of the Portland Marathon in
October.
even make varsity as a senior,
he said, but ran the varsity
track district meet, where
he took fourth. He ran as a
walk-on at Santa Clara Uni-
versity during his freshman
year, then transferred to the
University of Oregon. He
joined the club team, using
his junior and senior years
to get into running shape. He
ran at Hayward Field — the
university track — and up to
Pre’s Rock, the iconic memo-
rial where the Oregon Olym-
pic runner Steve Prefontaine
died at the age of 24.
Spear started “adventure
runs,” running at Black Butte
in c entral Oregon and other
outdoor locations.
After graduating , he began
a career in systems develop-
ment in Portland, still running
four or fi ve days a week.
Training and a victory
Spear, 32, moved back to
Seaside four years ago. He
lives with his girlfriend, who
is a nurse at Providence Sea-
side Hospital.
Long-distance running is
part of his regimen. He has
a few favorite routes, from
his home on N. Holladay
Drive across Tillamook Head
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who was slowing down. “I
held the pace, maybe picked
it up a little bit. I didn’t feel
tired. I just felt really ener-
gized,” Spear said.
As Spear crossed a bridge,
about a mile from the fi nish,
he saw his father and brother
along the waterfront. Spear
got to the fi nish before the
tape was up and kept running.
“You’re pretty thrilled
and excited about things, so I
didn’t feel the exhaustion that
I felt on the other times, when
I could barely move,” Spear
said.
His fi rst place fi nish time?
Two hours, 28 minutes and
47 seconds.
His family joined him
for the celebration and inter-
views after the race.
Spear attributes his win to
more training miles without
overtraining.
Runners call it “the taper,”
referring to the reduction of
exercise before the race.
“I think the taper is always
hard the last two or three
weeks,” he said. “You don’t
want to back off too much or
you feel fl at, but you don’t
want to overtrain so you’re so
tired at the start line you can
barely run.”
In February, Spear will
be setting his sights at a lon-
ger run: the 100K Black
Canyon Ultras — 62 miles
— in Black Canyon, Ari-
zona. Spear will be running
at a minimum of about 4,000
feet above sea level in moun-
tains between Flagstaff and
Phoenix. Temperatures could
range from the 70s to below
freezing with snow.
He’s run ultramarathons
before, at Forest Park, Mount
Hood and St. Helens, running
for eight or 10 hour stretches.
“You take a bathroom
break, but try to keep going.
When you stop, it’s always
hard to get going again,” he
said.
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to Indian Beach and back,
the Fort to Sea Trail and a
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six loops 2 miles each around
the Gearhart G olf Links .
For this year’s Port-
land M arathon in Octo-
ber, Spear started out with a
decent night’s sleep, an early
wake-up and a good break-
fast. The day was clear with
little wind.
At the start, one runner
took the early lead. Spear was
among a group of fi ve or six
behind the leader.
He was feeling strong . “I
just focused on what I was
doing,” he said. “I could kind of
see the leader, so I thought that
was a good position to be in.”
Around the area of Reed
College, Spear began gaining
on the leader. “People would
say, ‘He’s a minute ahead,’
and we go another mile, ‘He’s
40 seconds ahead.’”
Another runner from the
pack caught up to the leader,
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