AFTER NEAL WON THE 2008 Five Kilometer Road Race in Clarksburg, California, and Ken finished second, Neal and Ken had a lunch conversation that triggered their determination to tell the story of their combined lives--a story about running. Since connecting in their Junior Year of high school, a shared love of running pulled and pushed them ever onward to the highest levels of their sport, as well as successful pursuits in education and business.
Brothers of the Wind is the story of two boys who form an unlikely partnership and defy expectations to achieve success. Running fast for long distances ensured college educations and valuable professional connections.
For them, sports awards and recognition have never been the end goal. The attraction has always been the day-to-day participation and the attendant abiding expression of the inner self that is necessary for nurturing the souls of natural runners. For them, all other involvement has come second to the one thing they consider as encompassing their most human need.
Their story is filled with experiences and observations of the events and people making their journey a protracted expression of living, learning, and growing in concert with the social, political, and cultural changes of the times. It is unique and significant that they both became disciples of Mihály Iglói, the often overlooked Hungarian distance running coach. What they learned from Iglói has carried them through competition for more than 60 years. They dedicated each individual and team competition achievement to the memory of Mihály Iglói (1908 --1998).
Ken's experience with sports at San Jose City College sparked his activism for civil rights. With Harry Edwards at San Jose State, he co-organized Black athletes under the Olympic Project for Human Rights banner, leading to internationally acclaimed protest at the 1968 Olympics. He left teaching to join a Silicon Valley tech startup formed out of Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems following earning his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.
In the ensuing years, Neal won high-stakes Las Vegas poker games and prospered even when facing casino and mob controls. As public awareness grew, so did his interest in promoting people's health and creating economic opportunities. He purchased a health food store and partnered with a Traditional Chinese Medicine enterprise. Through his efforts to promote fitness and healthy eating, he built relationships that led to forming the Las Vegas Track Club in 1969.
Neal and Kenny end their running careers with impressive accomplishments.
