Christine Whalen learned of her father's death about seven hours before she was to compete for a state title in the 800-meter run Saturday.
The Archbishop Mitty junior's first reaction was to leave Sacramento immediately and be with her family in Monte Sereno.
Then Whalen heard what her father said the night before he died.
``My uncle said the last lucid statement he made was how proud he was that I got to run in the state finals,'' said Whalen, whose father, Thad Whalen, died Saturday morning after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. ``How could I not run for his sake?''
It was an emotional weekend for Whalen, 16, who entered the state track and field championships with the second-best 800 time in California but didn't much care about winning.
When Whalen left for Sacramento on Thursday, she knew her dad needed another round of chemotherapy. She kissed him goodbye and easily qualified for the final the following night.
The news was well-received by her dad.
``I was with my brother the whole night,'' said Mike Whalen, Christine's uncle. ``I remember telling him the night before he died that Christine qualified. He smiled and raised his thumbs up. He knew his daughter had qualified.''
Whalen didn't make any promises about winning the race for her dad. She simply wanted to run in his memory.
``If I could get through that race, and showed how much I cared through that, that's all I cared about the whole day,'' Whalen said.
The final at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento began like most of her races, with Whalen running a first-lap split of about 67 seconds. She was with the leaders until the final 150 meters, when she just didn't have anything left.
It was all she could do to cross the finish line.
``I broke down. I was crying while I was running. Mentally, I couldn't stay with it anymore,'' Whalen said.
Just a week earlier Thad Whalen, 42, pulled himself out of bed to watch his daughter compete at the Central Coast Section finals. A runner in high school and at Santa Clara University, his love of running was shared by his oldest child.
``It was really good to share the same kind of passion,'' Whalen said.
Whalen won the 800, her first CCS title, in one of the day's best races.
``To put it in perspective, that was probably the most important thing to me,'' she said Tuesday. ``It was the last thing he got to see me do. With him not being able to see me run at the state meet, CCS became my state meet.''
Golf
Aptos junior Eddie Olson shot a 4-under-par 68 to win the CIF boys' golf championship at Santa Maria Country Club on Tuesday. Olson, who shot a 66 on May 25 to win the Northern California title at Spring Creek Golf & Country Club in Ripon, finished two shots ahead of Spencer Thurn of Torrey Pines.
St. Francis finished third behind Torrey Pines and De La Salle of Concord. Sophomore Joseph Bramlett, who last weekend won the Santa Clara County Golf Championship, had the best score for the Lancers, a par 72.
Bellarmine College Prep, led by junior Daniel Lim's 74, finished sixth out of six teams competing.
Soccer all-stars
Three female players from the CCS have been selected to play in the McDonald's All-America high school soccer game Sunday at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
Chioma Igwe of Notre Dame-Belmont, Dana Johnson of Santa Teresa and Kira Sarkisian of St. Francis are on the West's 18-player roster. The game is at 2 p.m.
His favorite song was Bruce Springsteen's ``Born to Run.''
It was a perfect choice for Thaddeus John Whalen III, better known simply as Thad.
According to his sister, Deborah Whalen, he not only was a half-miler in track as a student at Saratoga High School but as an adult also seemed to be on the fast track.
Mr. Whalen died Saturday at age 42 of pancreatic cancer he'd outwitted for five years by treating it like a chronic disease he'd manage until he died of something else, his sister said. Last year with his wife, Cathlyn, he started a company in Napa and Santa Rosa -- Accent Party Rental -- that supplies the equipment for many parties held in California's wine country.
A graduate of Santa Clara University and Stanford University's graduate School of Business, Mr. Whalen became a partner in the venture capital firm Aspen Ventures.
With some of his Stanford classmates, Mr. Whalen in the 1990s co-founded the East Palo Alto chapter of the ``I Have a Dream'' foundation. It is a version of the program, named for Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech, that millionaire Eugene Lang started in 1981 in East Harlem.
Like Lang, the Stanford buddies adopted a group of grammar school kids in a poor community and saw them through high school and into college, raising funds for the students' needs. But Mr. Whalen's sister said he went further, helping some of the youngsters with their math and comforting others faced with the death of a parent.
He also nurtured his own four children, she said, coaching soccer teams for girls under 18 until he decided his brother, Michael, a talented soccer player and coach, could do it better than he.
Mr. Whalen was a member of the board of regents and board of fellows at SCU, where his father, John, is a professor in economics and his brother a communications professor.
An avid gardener, reader and host, Mr. Whalen was well-loved, said his sister, who began her eulogy at his funeral by quoting their aunt, Marion Connolly, who recently said, ``Nobody's perfect but Thad was damn close.''
Thaddeus ``Thad'' John Whalen III
Born: May 14, 1962, in San Francisco
Died: June 5, 2004, in Saratoga
Survived by: His wife, Cathlyn Whalen of Saratoga; his children, Christine, Sean, Thomas and Madelyn Whalen of Saratoga; his parents, John and Eleanor Whalen of Saratoga; his sister, Deborah Whalen of Houston; and his brother, Michael Whalen of San Jose.
Services: Have been held.
Memorial: Donations may be made in Mr. Whalen's name to Building Futures Now (the ``I Have a Dream'' program) at 1000 Fremont Ave., Suite 200, Los Altos, Calif. 94024 or to the UCSF Foundation, Cancer Center Fund, Box 0248, UCSF, San Francisco, Calif. 94123-0248.