PLATTSBURGH —Brushes with history are happenstance or made to happen.
It was the latter with Carol Parkinson, who grew up in Keeseville and graduated with the Class of 1970 from Keeseville High School.
In 1973, she married David Arnold, who lived in Delaware, and there she would carve out a 40+ year career, rising to engineering knowledge management leader, with DuPont. She holds business degrees from Clinton Community College and the University of Delaware.
Five years into her marriage, she was scanning an Essex County Republican, the weekly newspaper at that time, and there was an article about the Olympic Committee looking for torchbearers for 1980.
“I asked for an application,” she said.
“This was before anything – no email, almost no fax at that time. I got the application and filled it out, and the requirements were fairly simple. You had to be able to run a 12 minute-mile and you had to be able to commit to two and a half days for the relay. I had to write an essay about how I embodied the spirit of the whole man. This is 1978. My husband helped me with the essay, and I sent it in.”
Arnold was invited to be one of five people from each state for an interview in Washington, D.C. with the Ceremony and Awards Committee in early 1979.
“One of the things that we had to do was run around the Reflecting Pool in DC to prove that we could really do a 12-minute mile,” she said.
“So, I accomplished that. On April 1 or April 2 of 1979, I had a phone call. I had just finished my first full-length marathon. I got a phone call from the Olympic Committee and it said you have been selected to represent Delaware. I said, ‘This is an April Fool’s joke isn’t it?’ They said, ‘No, no, really you have been chosen.’
“In June of 1979, there were 52 of us, one from each state, and one from D.C. and one from Lake Placid, we were invited to gather in Lake Placid for orientation, which meant wilderness camping at Mt. Marcy. So, this whole group came together. The whole plan changed. They wanted all of us to do the whole relay together from Virginia to Lake Placid.”
BACKSTORY
Arnold was a runner, but up until April 1979, she did local races 5K, 10K, half marathon (12.1K) races. Her first full marathon was the Life & Health Marathon in Maryland.
“My goal was to do it under four hours,” she said.
“I crossed the finish line in 4:02. I was so irritated. I just dropped to the ground, and that is not something you want to do after you’ve run for four hours because the blood all pools in your legs. I almost couldn’t get up after that. That was the first of seven marathons that I’ve run. I don’t run anymore. I barely walk.”
1980 WINTER OLYMPICS
Arnold celebrates her 73rd birthday on July 23. Of late, she has been giving local talks about her experiences as an Olympic torchbearer.
“I continued my eight to 10 miles a day around my neighborhood when I was training for marathons,” she said.
“Normally, I would do like five miles in the morning before work. Once I knew I was going to be on the torch relay team, I did start running every day with a caulking compound. It would be similar to carrying a torch. It would be around the same weight. It’s about 3.5 lbs. Each of the people on the relay team got a torch when we finished.”
The torchbearers had two sets of running gear as well as parka, bib overalls, and moon boots.
“They are heavily insulated boots,” she said.
“I did not run in the moon boots. I had running shoes that matched my outfit. For the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, and awards ceremony each night, we wore our moon boots. Some of the award ceremonies took place on Mirror Lake. I saw Eric Heiden get his five gold medals on Mirror Lake, which was quite exciting.”
TORCH RELAY
The torch relay team met in Yorktown, Va., and traveled all the way to Lake Placid. The team was split, and each day 26 would go ahead in the town and villages the torch would pass through.
“We had a canned presentation that we would use for school children, and town meetings, and town halls, that kind of thing. We run out of town with the torch as it came through. The next day, the other group would do the same thing.”
Other than the first 24 hours, the team slept together in a different place each night.
“The flame is kept burning at all times,” she said.
“It’s kept in a miner’s lamp in the nighttime as a backup as well. As we ran, we always had another torchbearer on either side of us so that we could hand off if our arm got tired or we needed to drop back or whatever. We ran the whole way. We got to Glens Falls, we split in two, so we could have an east facing group and west facing group to encompass the entire Adirondacks. We met back in Lake Placid.”
OLYMPIC MISS
Her parents, John and Margaret Parkinson, lived in the Plattsburgh area, and her husband came up to see her run and for the festivities.
“I had tickets for my parents and my husband to go to the opening ceremony,” she said.
“At the beginning of the Olympics there were very serious traffic issues. It turned out that my parents and my husband never made it to the opening ceremony. I kept looking and looking and looking. I knew exactly where their seats were. They never showed up.”
Arnold was walking back into town, when her husband leans out of a school bus and says, “What’s going on? We’re still on this bus.”
“I said, ‘the opening ceremony is finished,’” she said.
“’You missed it. You totally missed.’ So, I got onto the bus, and the bus driver said, ‘Well. lady, I’m to take these people to the Horse Show grounds, drop them off. I’m picking up VIPs to take them back into Lake Placid.’
“I said, ‘Oh, no you’re not. These people have now missed the whole opening ceremony. They are not getting off of this bus.’”
Arnold recalls that it was bitterly cold.
“I said, ‘They are not getting off this bus, and if I have to take over this bus, I will,’” she said.
“‘I can drive a stick.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, lady, that’s okay.’ That was disappointing. I have a large family, and some of them had chosen other events to go to, the speed skating or ice skating or whatever.”
HIGHLIGHTS
During her run, Arnold struggled to keep the torch’s flame from her hat.
“I had to hold the touk and the tassel on top and everything,” she said.
“It made lifelong friends. Forty-five years later that group of people still have a yearly newsletter that we all contribute to. We keep each other updated. It’s one of the highlights of my entire life. I was very, very fortunate to be part of that process.”
Her Olympic experiences has shaped what she has done. One of her cherished possessions is her pewter Olympic medal she received as a torchbearer.
“No one can tell me that they’re a team just because someone brings them together,” she said.
“You’re not a team unless you really have a shared goal and a firm purpose for being together. It’s one of things that has been part of my leadership journey as well.”