Club News, August 27, 2000

Club News

Patty Fulton 3rd at Annapolis 10 Miler; Kevin Ryan Clobbered by Femme During Triathlon; Peter Nye Published Best Seller; Nate Reilly to Head Volunteer Effort at Marathon in the Parks; Extinction of the Wooly Mammoth – New Hypothesis Offered;


New Members

Farrell Malone of Georgetown University, currently training for the Columbus Marathon on October 29th . Farrell grew up in Shreveport, LA and intends to graduate next spring from G’town with a double major in economics and mathematics. We welcome Farrell to the club, and wish him the best of luck in the upcoming academic year.


Race Results

Annapolis Ten Miler, August 27
At the Annapolis Ten Miler on August 27th, Patty Fulton took 3rd woman overall in a time of 1:01:53. Good going Patty! Below is a listing of club member’s time for that particular race

  • Patty Fulton 1:01:53
  • Paul Neimeyer 1:01:57
  • Mark Drosky 1:03:34
  • Kim Robinson 1:03:41
  • Jennifer Kulynych 1:17:57
  • Bob Platt 1:19:27
  • Katherine Turner 1:21:55

Few members were happy with their times. However, considering the hills and heat of Annapolis (and the fact that a number of us were suffering sickness and injuries), all should take heart in their performance.


Riverwatch Triathlon Northeast, MD, July 23

Kevin Ryan did his first (and probably his last) triathlon in Northeast MD, finishing 159th in this MD triathlon. Reports Kevin:

“I did better than I thought on the swim, although apparently swimmers do not extend the same courtesies as runners do when passing someone slower. A couple of women swam OVER me if you can believe that. Finished in like 25 minutes, which was good for me and considering I zig zagged all over the lake. Then I lost my bike in the transition area. Bike was hilly but ended up being fast at the end. I once again forgot where my spot was, and hammered the run. They rank your splits, and I was like the 250th fastest swim, 220th fastest bike, and the 4th fastest run.  GO figure…I’m sticking to the roads”


WaWa Hartwood 10 Miler, August 27th
Kevin was also 13th in the WaWa Hartwood 10 Miler , in a time of 58:35. This is very good.


Brief Digression into the Meaning of the Word WaWa

For those of wondering what WaWa means, the word actually dual meaning

  1. It is the Lenni Lenape Indian word for the Canadian goose that inhabits the Delaware Valley,
  2. It is an an ABC journalist (first name Barbara) who posed the rather horrifying question “Monica, can you tell all 70 million of us exactly what phone sex is?”

The Wawa on the Left Rarely Asks Embarrassing Questions


PVTC All-Comers Meet #10, August 20th
Our friends John Rusinko and Jay Wind did quite well in the 3000 meter race at the PVTC All Comers, with John posting a 10:06, while Jay ran 10:51. Ted Poulus won whole nine yards in a time of 9:35. Good going gentlemen!


Parkersburg Half Marathon, August 19th
Our friend Ron McGraw posted a 1:30:34 in the Parkersburg Half Marathon in West Virginia. This is a bit slower than his PR of 1:22, but still a sub seven-minute pace for 13 miles.


Last time world traveler Caitlin Adams wrote us, she was visiting Australia. Caitlin now writes from Maine, where she continues her idyllic summer. Says Caitlin
I discovered a local 5 mile race was happening in conjunction with the Machias Blueberry Festival – so I registered and ran. Driving to the race on an overcast morning was peaceful. But the moment the race started the sun came out in full force. It actually became hot for Maine. The course was a very hilly one (with two LONG hills in mile 2) but a lot of fun. Only 230 people ran/walked – which made for a nice, uncrowded field. I came in 3rd in my age group (19-29) at 47:48

Good job Caitlin. Caitlin (along with fellow clubmate Anthony Belber) will soon resume teaching duties at Georgetown Day School


News of the Club

At the club meeting on August 16th, at the Cap City Brewery, a number of decisions were reached.

  1. Nate Reilly graciously volunteered to take responsibility for our volunteer activities at the Marathon in the Parks on November 5th. This involves calling club members, as well as coordinating with race organizers. WRC will be working a water stop at Mile 23 (where the Capital Crescent Trail crosses into DC). Many thanks to VP Reilly. If you are interested, please contact Nate at Nate Reilly (natemary@worldweb.net).
  2. Steve Tappan and Dave Keating will be in charge of calling volunteers for the Packet Pickup for the Georgetown 10K on September 30th
  3. Adina Siegel is now our club’s outreach coordinator, contacting folks who join the club, to make them feel welcome, and letting them know about club activities.

We thank all these volunteers!


Tuesday Speed Work

As FBI Agent Kirk Baird is on vacation this week with his family, Steve Ward will be leading the Tuesday speed workout. Like Kirk, Steve is also involved in law enforcement – as a federal prosecutor in the tax division of the U.S. Department of Justice. If Sandra Day O’Connor ever decides to join us (rather unlikely), WRC would then have a fully fledged criminal justice system.


New Race Captains
Two new captains have volunteered over the past week to coordinate races teams. Todd Martin will be captain of the team we are fielding at the Fair Lakes 8K on September 10th. And Kevin Ryan will be captain of our men’s Marine Corps Marathon team.


Stork Brings Good News to Pozo-Olanos
Our warmest congratuations to Jack and Jodie Pozo-Olano, who had their second child Juan Carlos this past week (Katherine was born back in Winter of 1999). As mentioned on the WRC listserv “both Jodie and Juan Carlos are doing well”. Wit Bob Platt observed impishly “I see you said the mother and son are doing well. I guess that means Jack is a nervous wreck!” So we hasten to add that Jack is doing fine also!


New Book for Peter Nye

Kudos to WRC alumnus Peter Nye whose book The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: The Training, Strengthening, and Eating Plan Behind the World’s Greatest Cycling Victory is being published in September. The book, which Pete co-wrote with Lance Armstrong, is already #14 bestseller in Canada.

Peter posted a 2:23 marathon with the club twenty years ago. For the past ten years, Peter has been writing about bicycling, with this being his fourth book. We congratulate Peter on his latest achievement, and wish him continued success


Speaking of alumni, we have word from Karl Stith, who used to train with us five years ago. Karl is now living in the Netherlands representing Nike in its dealings with elite athletes (Juriy Borzakovsky, Ali Saidi-Sief among others). Writes Karl about the upcoming Olympics:

“All I can really say is that it has been a real strange season. The Olympic Games will be different. People are expecting a ton of fun down there. Me? I see it the completely other way….I saw Jerry McGwire one too many times.”


Long Distance Running, Hunting, and the Extinction on the Wooly Mammoth

To close things out, we’d like to note an excellent article this month in Outside Magazine called Endurance Predator, by Benrd Heinrich, professor of Biology at the University of Vermont.

Professor Heinrich enunciates a rather provocative hypothesis about the relationship between long distance running and hunting:

“We were all runners once. Although some of us forget that primal fact, comparative biology teaches us that life on the plains generates arms races between predators and the prey – and our ancestors were definitely not into unilateral disarmament. We humans have one major physical advantage. We can sweat copiously, which allows us to manage our internal temperature and extend our endurance. Most animals have no such mechanism. Through the age, there are examples of men chasing down beasts that are much faster.

Like the North American antelopes residual ability to outrun a cheetah, a creature that became extinct on the continent 10,000 years ago – our ability to run, throw and jump are leftovers in our survival tool kits. As such, we used them in play, because they are instinctually important to us.”

There is strong circumstanial evidence to support that hypothesis that our forebears were ruthless predators. Man first arrived in North America 10,000 years ago – at the same time that numerous mega-fauna became extinct. Included in this number were saber-toothed cats, mastodons, wooly mammoths, huge ground sloths, short-faced bears, and dire wolves. Scientists like Heinrich beleve the sophistication of man’s weapons – and ability to run animals to exhaustion – doomed numerous species.

ClubNews however, believes these mammals disappeared for a different reason. Once Homo sapiens appeared in North America, Wooly Mammoth realized it was only a matter of time before John Gray’s Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” would top the New York Times best seller lists. And they said “Oh how awful -we are definitely not sticking around for THAT”. And poof! — they disappeared.

Wooly Mammoth Chose Extinction as Preferable to Reading This Book