Washington Running Club News
April 03′
Bringing you up to speed…banquet in January, Smith and Martin WRC runner’s of the year, Barb Fallon Wallace elected president, Casey Smith new vice president; new members in 03′; starting the year off at the races; runner rankings; newsworthy volunteer efforts; DC marathon debacle; racing teams coming together; racing tops available; Galaty reports from Turkey; and club happy hour planned.
Major news event: massive sinkhole strives to sink Gerry Ives
2002 Year-End Banquet Held
The year-end 2002 WRC banquet was held at the Capitol Lounge on Saturday, January 25th. A good time was had by the 45 plus members in attendance who partook in quaffing pizza, eating beer, and slapping back shots of chit chat. Also, of course, some club business was conducted such as…
SMITH AND MARTIN 2002 WRC RUNNERS OF THE YEAR!
President Jim Wadsworth announced the recipients of the 2002 WRC Runner of the Year awards.
Casey Smith took honors for women with a terrific running year that included some very impressive times, high places in big events, and the number one open-division ranking of the Washington Running Report in December.
Todd Martin took honors for men with an extensive slate of races (covering an array of distances from 5k to the marathon) and a host of impressive times and places as well. He also worked hard in helping the WRC shore up race teams and captained some of those too.
A well-deserved congratulations to Casey and Todd!
Jim also summarized WRC 2002 race team results:
– GW Birthday Marathon Relay – 2nd place female
– Rockville Twilighter 8K: two teams – 3d and 10th places
– Chicago marathon: coed open 3d place
– JFK 50-Miler: 4th place
NEW OFFICERS ELECTED!
Barb Fallon Wallace and Casey Smith were elected President and Vice President, respectively, of the WRC. Barb moves up from Vice President, taking over for Jim Wadsworth who completed a two-year stint, and Casey steps in for Barb.
Congratulations Barb and Casey! Let’s all pledge our support to our top new officers as they lead us into and through the year with many challenges and running goals to fulfill!
The official WRC officer slate is now as follows:
President – Barb Fallon Wallace (unanimously elected)
Vice President – Casey Smith (unanimously elected)
Treasurer – James Scarborough (continuing on)
Secretary and Membership Outreach – Marie Sandrock (newly appointed)
Women’s Coach – Nate Reilly (continuing on)
Race Team Manager – Todd Martin (continuing on)
Information Officer – Jim Wadsworth (newly appointed)
Website – Adina Wadsworth (newly appointed) and Dave Keating (continuing on)
New Members so Far in 03′
We are happy to announce some new members to WRC this year, or perhaps slightly before. Sorry if we left anyone out…but, here are those we sincerely welcome to the club:
Sarah Joyce
Beth McCann
Lisa Thomas
Sharon Donovan
Katie Durkin
Lilibet Hagel
Morgan Eash
We wish all these new members much success in their forthcoming running and racing as part of WRC!
If you know anyone who’s interested in joining the club, here’s a new page link that will tell them more (if all your training has made you forget all the good reasons why they should join, or what we have, or for what we even stand for): Membership Info
At the Races
WRC Women Shine at Williamsburg 1/2 Marathon
All seven of the WRC women who ventured south for the Williamsburg Half Marathon finished in the top 17! Excellent running and kudos to them and Coach Nate Reilly!
2nd Casey Smith 23 1:19:57 (6:05 pace)
4th Sharon Donovan 28 1:26:36 (6:35 pace)
6th Lisa Thomas 27 1:27:13 (6:38 pace)
8th Britton Stackhouse 23 1:29:03 (6:46 pace)
14th Kate Hudson 24 1:31:50 (6:59 pace)
16th Beth Miller 33 1:32:58 (7:04 pace)
17th Marie Sandrock 31 1:33:07 (7:05 pace)
Smith Takes St. Patrick’s Day 10K
On a beautiful Saturday morning in downtown DC, Casey Smith won the St. Patrick’s Day 10K on Saturday, March15th, in the women’s field and Michael Wardian took 3d overall for men leading 26 WRC members in the race. We had 5 women in the top 10 and a number of other notable performances. The top 10 runners in the men’s and women’s divisions took home prizes, as did the top 3 in the age groups. Here’s the list of our runners out of 3,831 finishers:
Women:
1st Casey Smith 23 35:41
7th Patty Fulton 37 37:01
8th Lory Gray 23 37:20
9th Sharon Donovan 28 37:26
10th Lisa Thomas 27 38:09
13th Maria Kozloski 38 40:10 (1st 35-39 age group)
23d Marie Sandrock 31 41:47
33d Heidi Reester 28 42:31
37th Adina Wadsworth 35 43:13 (3d 35-39 age group)
49th Sarah Buckheit 42 44:05
66th Sarah Joyce 20 45:13
76th Elizabeth White 27 43:24
250th Avery Saunders 24 51:48
1645th Lisa Mueller 33 69:56
Men:
3d Michael Wardian 28 31:47
20th Anthony Belbar 30 34:57
23d Jim Wadsworth 46 35:00 (2nd 45-49 age group)
34th Albert Han 29 35:57
60th Jay Wind 53 37:55
69th Robert Hansgen 31 37:47
104th Roberto Rodriguez 47 40:08
142nd Jim Taylor 54 41:13
224th Dale Learn 33 43:16
368th Stephen Baker 42 45:07
716th Steve Ampter 46 49:53
Wardian Captures Run vs Row 10K
Michael Wardian won the Run vs Row 10K held in Alexandria on Saturday, March 30th. Michael ran the course in 32:13, winning by nearly a minute over the second place dude. Over fifty years and durable master’s member Jay Wind finished 25th in 39:30.
Frederick Marathon a Snowy Affair
The weather in the DC area surprises, and changes quickly and often, has become the understatement of the year during recent times. Case in point: this past Sunday’s Frederick Marathon. Huge flakes of steady snow, blasting gusts of cold damp wind, and oodles of sploshy slush greeted the runners in this year’s inaugural event. The race directors did a superb job given the conditions and influx of runners who were cheated out of their spot in the cancelled DC Marathon but able to get into Frederick. WRC was represented in said event with Aaron Schwartzbard finishing 5th in 3:08 (a day after completing the 50k Hat Run on Saturday) and Adina Wadsworth 12th among women in 3:45 (Boston qualifier).
Aaron telling NBC, “frankly, I think it would have been Runners passing through a Frederick graveyard enroute. More than one was
easier running through a plague of locusts.” overheard humming, “the weather outside is crappy, and my legs sure don’t snappy.”
(Due to space limitations in this summary news, not all races of the year are listed. Watch for all member associated results in future news.)
Washington Running Report Runner Rankings – WRC Members Noted
The Washington Running Report has presented their year end runner rankings for overall 2002. A number of WRC members were ranked.
Women Open Division:
4th Casey Smith
11th Lory Gray
16th Lisa Thomas
Women 35-39:
1st Patty Fulton
4th Maria Kozloski
Women 40-44:
14th Sarah Buckheit
Men’s Open Division:
7th Michael Wardian
19th Todd Martin
Men’s 50-54:
2nd Jay Wind
Congratulations to those who had a great 2002 and made the rankings!
(Note, the RacePacket Grand Prix Series wasn’t ignored. While a number of WRC members had good performances in series races and earned series points, no one had enough races and points to earn a place in the final standings, unlike in previous years when members have placed. Let’s all strive to do better in that regard in 2003!)
Volunteer Efforts Superb!
With the spirit of St. Patrick’s day emanating from the smilin irish eyes of President Barb FALLON Wallace, WRC members turned out in all colors green to help with the packet pick-up at the St. Patrick’s Day 10k. Barb says, “I would like to extend a big round of thanks to the following club members for their time and volunteer efforts at the St. Paddy’s day race!” WRC also extends thanks to the Capitol Running Company for allowing us the opportunity to help out. Here’s who showed to make for happy racers:
1. Jim Wadsworth
2. Adina Wadsworth
3. Barb Fallon Wallace
4. Maria Kozloski
5. Sharon Donovan
6. David Keating
7. Anne Aurand
8. John O’Donnell
9. Patrick Dudley
10. Marie Sandrock
11. Lisa Thomas
12. Casey Smith
13. James Scarborough
14. Henry Grossmann
15. Mike Rae
16. Steve Baker
17. Katie Durkin
Shame on you H20 Entertainment Group!
UNOFFICIAL DC MARATHON TAKES PLACE. Due to the maddening and indefensible cancellation of the official DC Marathon by H20 Entertainment Group, an unofficial marathon was run on the course instead on Sunday morning, March 23d . About 400 runners ran the course and oodles of volunteers made the event a reality.
The volunteers, in less than 72 hours, did a terrific job organizing and putting on the event. It was a super sight to see…all the volunteers, the many who showed up to run (lots from out of State), spectators cheering, police at crucial intersections, water stops…in all, a great great day for the greater Washington DC running community!
Theresa Cluck, Bob Schneider, Jay Wind, PICnet, Fleet Feet, the DC Roadrunners Club, The Capitol Running Company, RacePacket, NOVA, Potomac Runners, and the many others who helped out all should be highly commended for pulling it off so very well! It made one proud to be among the running community in DC.
For those of you interested, it’s become abundantly clear that H20 Entertainment Group cancelled the race entirely on their own because of financial reasons, NOT because of security concerns or advice from the city or anyone else, as you may have read. The for-profit company lost $500,000 last year and were broke at the time of cancellation so there was no money to pay for the many expenses that would have been incurred at the expo and on race day, never mind refund entry fees. A class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of runners and the city may seek legal action as well if refunds aren’t forthcoming. All told, their actions are a tremendous disservice to runners and race directors everywhere. Shame!
Teams Posed for Cherry Blossom and the Plaza American 5k
This month WRC will field two women’s teams at Cherry Blossom and a mixed team at the Plaza American 5k. Best of luck to everyone. With our women’s teams especially, we have an amazing crop of strong runners. Team A will include Casey Smith, Sharon Donovan, Britton Stackhouse, Liz Parks, and Maria Kozloski. Team B will have Lisa Thomas, Marie Sandrock, Beth Miller, Carly Vynne, and Darcee O’Donnell. Best of luck to these two super WRC teams!
For Plaza American, we have Todd Martin, Jim Wadsworth, Steve Ward, David Young, Adina Wadsworth, and Sarah Buckheit so far. We can have up to 10 team members and welcome any members (up to 4 more) interested.
We are also putting together a mixed team for the Sallie Mae 10k and thus far have Jim Wadsworth, Adina Wadsworth, Sarah Buckheit, and Heidi Reester. If interested in this team, you must register quickly for the race will close when it reaches capacity. If you’re interested in either Plaza America or Sallie Mae, please contact Jim at jwads@yahoo.com Women’s Coach Nate Reilly reports that a full women’s team has been entered in Sallie Mae as well.
Quote from David Keating to be remembered when it comes to prerace jitters: “The best advice to all: don’t get nervous – this is all for fun. Granted, there is also a component of needless suffering involved – but it is best to simply ignore that.”
WRC Racing Tops Available
We now have WRC tops to sell to members at cost ($15 each). They are made of a breathable and wicking mesh material and are black with white lettering. A number of people have already received theirs…it’ll be great to all be running in the same top and showing the strength and support of WRC!
Happy Hour Planned for April 11th
HAPPY HOUR ON FRIDAY, APRIL 11TH. A WRC happy hour is scheduled for Friday, April 11th at the Rock Bottom Brewery in the Ballston Mall, Arlington (the Ballston metro stop via the orange line is a very short walk).
This is the spot where we’ve had our best happy hour turnouts, so we’re seeking such again. If you can make it, please come on out to share a couple refreshments with your fellow WRC members. The happy hour will get going at 6:00ish…but feel free to come when you can make it. We’ll be gathering in the bar area where the higher tables sit.
“Ah, beer, my one weakness. My Achille’s heel if you will” –Homer Simpson
Foreign Correspondence from Istanbul
Member Chris Galaty, who is living for a spell in Istanbul, Turkey and teaching school, reported in recently, lest we be worrying about him: “I hope the club is doing well. I miss my Sunday runs with you guys. Unfortunately, I am too busy to run much and there is not much running where I live. So, I’m not even close to being in the shape I was last year. On the other hand I am living in an amazing city and can’t complain. I am sure you have been hearing a lot about Turkey lately but I can tell you that it is very safe here and there is not any anti-American sentiment that I have seen, though I am sure it exists. Everyone that I have met may not support the war in Iraq but love Americans and are happy to meet and talk to them. It is a wonderful city and very safe!”
Glad to hear you’re surviving fine Chris, and having fun. But we must confess to oblivion…have you been absent on the Sunday runs? Wow, guess we are just too monkey brained so early in the morn. Must be Tris Kruger’s flamboyant outfits muddling our thoughts. And not running? Some people will go to all lengths and distances to get away from it, we can certainly see now. Cheers…stay well, stay in touch.
Massive Sinkhole Strives to Sink Gerry Ives
In an unprecedented effort to thwart Sunday distance run ironman Gerry Ives, who’s been running the WRC group run out of Georgetown for well over 20 years with nary missing a one, a giant sinkhole opened up on M Street precariously near where the group starts its run. From the Washington Post, March 27, 2003: “A 30-foot swath of a Georgetown street slid into a construction pit last night, swallowed by a sinkhole along M Street that emergency crews worked overnight to reinforce and keep from growing, officials said. Businesses and homes around the intersection of Bank and M streets NW were evacuated about 7 p.m. after the giant chunk Street disappeared into the sinkhole near a construction site. Emergency crews tried to determine whether outlying areas were in danger.” An unnamed source overheard Gerry muttering, “danger shmanger, sinkhole be damned! I won’t miss that run if I have to jump into that silly little pit and hop back out, just as in my days scooting over the hills and dales of England when I was a scant laddy.”
WRC Men Posing at Banquet
At the year-end 2002 banquet, outgoing president Wadsworth aims camera wayward as some good looking WRC chaps show expressions of wonderment indicative of their state of inebriation, or lack thereof. From left to right, David Stoudt, David Keating, David Young, John Aston, Patrick Dudley, and Jim Wadsworth.
Something to contribute to the news or have information to offer? Let newsmaster Adina Wadsworth know.
Disclaimer: Club News is designed to inform, enlighten, and amuse. We make no guarantee that this stuff is completely accurate, or even bears a passing resemblance to reality.