Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND SPORTS was the only college we really knew about," Alexa said. "It kind of influ- enced us. There was a point where I didn't want to go here because my dad went here. I kind of wanted to do my own thing. But I came on a visit and it wasn't about him being here or any- thing, it was just that I liked it." If Notre Dame wasn't built directly "We kind of grew up and this calls her dad after most races to break down what she could have done bet- ter, and that he'd probably like to get even more involved if he could. Of course, it's a little easier to let go since he's known their coaches for more than three decades now. Aragon has been pushing his daugh- into their DNA, at least running was. The Aragons spent much of their youth in baby jogging strollers. Their mother, the former Kathy Pfeifer, was an Olympic distance runner. She met Chuck at an Olympic sports festival in Syracuse, N.Y. Aragon came agonizingly close to ters to "stop running and start racing" since they began their competitive ca- reers in junior high. But, he said, he has rarely tried to challenge them. "By the time that they were running real well, Kathy and I had gotten so old and decrepit that we couldn't keep up with them," he said. Decrepit, for a pair of former world his own Olympic shot in 1984, but fin- ished just five-hundredths of a second away from qualifying in the 1,500-me- ter race. He continued to run competi- tively for several years after he gradu- ated from Notre Dame. He eventually trimmed his time in the mile down to 3:51.2 and said he marvels that he once went so fast when he watches today's Notre Dame track team on campus visits. His original record with the Irish stood until 2003. "I always say that I really enjoyed my career as a runner, but I am just loving my kids' careers," he said. "We can't really help them with organic chemistry anymore, but we can help them with some of those things and it feels good to have that in common." The Aragons have two very capable coaches at home to help them with the finer technical points of race run- ning as well as to motivate them to keep pushing harder. Alexa said she class runners, means pounding away on the Montana roads on a bike for two or three hours a day instead of just using their feet. Aragon still enters and even occasionally wins a road race, like last Father's Day when he claimed his first victory over his oldest daugh- ter in a long time. "It was Father's Day. I had to let him win," Alexa said. The father-daughter racing duo stayed neck-and-neck throughout most of race as Alexa reveled in the chance to push her father to continue after he had done the same to her for many years. When they neared the fin- ish line Chuck's old instincts kicked in and he might have thrown an alleged elbow or two to get the separation he needed to beat his daughter. "Those four-minute mile days are definitely a thing of the past," Danielle said. Now it's just a memory, one that they can all share together. ✦