A warm welcome to the new PRR Exec team - and a heartfelt thank you to the “retiring” executives.
Your new President: Ross Fleming
Vice President: Monique Simard
Treasurer: John Neels
Secretary: Lynne Beszant
Membership: Monika Kriedemann
Social: Jess Bassil
Newsletter: Karen Hayley
Clothing: Paul Bouchard
Retiring to a life of leisure: Nicki, Roger, Suki, Paul P.
Seems fitting that in our 25th year as a club our President is also our first “second generation” member. Does that make anyone feel old? That’s okay - keep running. You’ll be fine.
Here’s to a great 25th year.
Two PRR Members participated in this trail race on the North Shore this weekend. It takes place in and around the Lynn Canyon area, starting and finishing in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. It is offered in 12k, 19k, and 24k sizes and had a 60% increase in signups over last year. Everyone seemed to enjoy the race despite the cold and the odd bits of hail and ice.
Both PRR Members chose the 24k course:
The Pacific Road Runners Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday November 19 at 7:30 pm in the False Creek Community Center “Granville Island Room”. All members are welcome.
All positions on the exec are open to competition. The following 2009 exec members have offered to come back - but if you really really want their jobs I’m sure they’d welcome you.
Returning
John - Treasurer
Karen - Newsletter
Jess - Social
Lynne - Secretary
Departing
Nicki - President
Roger - Vice President
Sukhi - Membership
Paul - Clothing
Monika has already stepped up to fill the Membership position; Monique is in for VP - and I’m planning to take on clothing. So we’re down to President.
Time to step up! (Note that the new President has the right to redefine the role. There is nothing in the rules that requires the President to do all of the announcements or the blog postings. These duties can be shared with other members of the exec.)
16 hour day + 100 km + 37/40 runners + 7 volunteers + at least 12 inches of rain = Haney to Harrison 2009
Interesting race fact: The Ultra Marathon was designated a 2009 ACU 100k National Championship and a total of 29 participants completed the Ultra Marathon this year. Darin Bentley of Surrey, BC came in first in the men’s division with a time of 7:49:37 and Denise McHale of Whitehorse, YK came in first in the women’s division with a time of 8:15:56.
This is only my 3rd H2H - and I can unequivocally state that it was the worst weather. I’ve heard from our veterans that it may not be the worst ever but it ranks in the top 5. It’s all part of the day.
So here is how our teams fared:
PRR CU L8ters 8:10:34
PRRedators 8:20:50
PRRfect Legs 8:27:23
PRRactically There 8:34:27
PRRaying for Sunshine 8:57:07
Every team had at least one member willing to run 2 legs - and 3 of the teams needed it. Bill had to drop out due to knee problems so Grant ran legs 2 & 3 for his team - just a regular weekend run for Grant.
Ed - who was the person willing to run the extra leg on his team - had to drop at the last minute with a cold. Stephen found out that morning that he was running 3 & 4. Yikes. Hey instead of running 15 - why don’t you run 29km? Won’t that be fun? What a good sport you are Stephen. Dave - who was running leg 2 in the second last step of his backwards progression (in his 6 previous H2Hes he has run in order 8,7,6,5,4,and 3) offered to run some of leg 3 but was secretly thrilled when Stephen said he’d do it all - because we all know how leg 3 starts. YUCK.
And then Ainslie was back east for a family emergency so her team substituted John on Leg 8. Hmmm 40 minute 10 km-er for a 60 minute 10 km-er. Gee why did that team win???
If you got cold running - imagine how our 7 volunteers felt. They were out in that weather for hours! Thank you to: Barb, Paul P, Judi, Bettie, Sally, Roger, Matthew and Dierdre for making it possible for our teams to compete. Thank you also to the runner-volunteers who helped out before or after their legs.
A good time was had by all - despite the bad weather. (Seriously - why isn’t this race in September?) And wasn’t it delightful that the sun came out just in time to blind us on our drive back to the Mission Leisure Centre.
Thanks to Jess for her splendid job organizing the after party. As a reward for her hard work - her table’s order was lost by the kitchen. When we were all ready to leave the restaurant they were still waiting for their food. Grrrrr.
Despite the weather, despite the long day, despite the logisitical issues (or maybe partly because of them) - this event is a highlight of our year. If you haven’t tried it - put it in your calendar for next year. And invest in warm waterproof clothing.
Forget the Chicago marathon - the real reason to head to the windy city is the Hot Chocolate 5km / 15km run. PRR was represented at this race and one other Chicago run over the weekend.
What do you do when you’re in Chicago for a business trip? Run of course. And if you happen to be there on the last weekend of October - why not run twice?
Jackie ran the Race of the Dead 5 km on Sat Oct 31 - in a personal best 27 min and change. Then followed that up with another 27 minute performance at the best race ever(!) - the Hot Chocolate run on November 1. The course is in and around the Lake Shore area - great location if the weather is good - which it was. But forget all of that - check out this link to see the swag! http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/goodiebag/
And if that isn’t enough - there’s a chocolate fondue at the end. Hershey’s - the sponsor - served 900 gallons of Hot Chocolate, 300 gallons of warm chocolate fondue, and over 200,000 assorted pieces of candy post race.
(Note to First Half Race director: can we get a chocolate sponsor????? Please????)
I’ve been informed by an inside source that the personal best performance has affected Jackie. She enjoyed the race but chose NOT to participate in any of the chocolate post-race festivities. I repeat - no chocolate. There’s something seriously wrong with that. Susan, it’s up to you to convince her that you can be a runner and even improve on your speed while regularly indulging in chocolate of all forms.
An opportunity squandered.
3 PRR runners were among the 40,000 runners that took part in the New York City marathon - putting on a show for somewhere in the range of 1,000,000 spectators! . We’re all looking forward to hearing about their event. Here are the results: