Renew Membership – Get Your Club Tech Shirt
If you have not yet paid your 2011 club dues, please mail as soon as
possible. We will not be mailing the new New Balance club tech shirts, so plan to either pick one up at a coming club event (Winter Run, Banquet, other group run) or contact Ray (633-1482) to make arrangements. Claire will be in touch with some members who need to submit a new “Member Form” for our records.

Free or Discounted Racing Singlets
Jack Horowitz’s Silverside/Naamans Medical Aid Units have donated towards 50 RaceReady singlets (same as current ones shown at www.pcvrc.com/gear.php, but with Medical Unit logo on back). To encourage participation on our USATF
teams, they are free to those who registered with USATF ($29/year) and participated in at least 4 series races last year. That makes the following eligible to contact Ray to claim your free shirt:
Deborah Compton, Theresa Kauffman, Claire Neilan,
Carole Feole, Dan Simmons, Lee Kauffman,
Epi Camacho, Dirk Sweigart, Dean Coffin,
Tom Steenkamer, Rich Szymanski, Josh Loren,
John Schultz, Fred Shufflebarger, Tom Jermyn,
Lorri Fencer, Chris James, Jack & Kelly Horowitz

If not on this list, you can receive a free one, if you join USATF this year and after you complete your 4th race either the Road and/or Off Road series in 2011. Contact team coordinator Rich Szymanski for dates and carpool information.

Instructions to join/renew USATF ($30 per person)
When you enter your information, you must include our club number (0025 or 25) for you to be recorded on our team. Register online at
https://www.usatf.org/membership/application/

If not joining USATF, all are invited to purchase one or more singlet for the low price of $10 each! Again, contact Ray.

Club Member Meeting 1/18 6pm
All members and prospective members are invited to attend an informal
“Brainstorming in the Beer Room” meeting at Ray’s house near Delcastle on Tuesday Jan 18 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm or so. Beer will be provided to help us discuss ways to improve the club. Bring any suggestions or ideas for events. Would you like to host a group run or help make the club more fun and beneficial?
Would you like to play a role on the DDC 15K committee?
Would you like us to help new runners and even walkers?
Contact Ray to RSVP.

Winter Run 5K 1/30 10am
We’re planning a 5K fun run at Carousel Park for Sunday morning, Jan 30 to be followed by socializing over lunch or brunch just up the street at Ruby Tuesday’s or another local place. It’s a fun run on the beautiful cross country course, so if you have trail shoes, wear’em. Maybe we’ll even be
lucky enough to have some snow to make things interesting. This is a free event for members AND non-members, so bring friends.
Contact Josh Loren at to give us an idea of number or especially if you can assist in any way.

Club Awards Banquet
We’re finalizing plans for our annual banquet which will be held on either Feb 26 or Mar 5. Keep an eye on this bulletin or our website events page for details. Contact any board member to nominate someone who you think is deserving of an Outstanding Achievement Award (including our Runner of the
Year and Rookie of the Year). Nominations needed by end of January.

You can reply to this bulletin with your nominations. Reminder: Those receiving major awards will receive a plaque. Others will receive a Notable Achiever glass with club logo. If you wish to nominate someone for a major award, please give specific reasons and any numbers you can provide. The board will be final decisions on awards.

Weekly Group Runs
Regular Wednesday & Thursday 6pm Delcastle runs and Sunday 8am long runs (Panera in Newark) continue throughout the winter. Come on out! You’ll be warm in no time.

Successful Holiday Party
There was a very good turn-out for the club holiday party – at least 65 people attended, with several people signing up as new club members. Most who attended found it convenient to renew their dues for the new year. For those who haven’t yet renewed now is the time. Individual or family membership is $25 for the year. If none of your personal information has changed and you signed a membership form last year, simply send in your check, made out to PCVRC, to PCVRC, P.O.Box 3259, Wilmington, DE 19804. If any personal information has changed in the last year, please download, fill out and enclose a new form: http://www.pcvrc.com/pdf/PCVRCMembership.pdf

USATF Mid-Atlantic Award Lunch
The USATF Mid-Atlantic Award Lunch will be held at noon on Saturday, January 29 at the Central Baptist Church in Wayne, PA. Registration is $25/person and seating is available for 180. A number of club participants in the USATF Grand Prix and Off-Road Series will receive awards and the club will receive a check for its finish in each series. The flyer is viewable here: http://home.comcast.net/~maher/myfilelocker/awardlunch2010.pdf .

Note that parking is limited, costing $0.50 per hour. Anyone wishing to ride with Ralph McKinney may contact him at 652-0532.

Best wishes to Phil Lavelle, who is undergoing carpal tunnel surgery. In about a month, he’ll have surgery on the other arm.

Car for sale
Special offer to club members, family or friends: PCVRC’s small wonder, 93 year-old Becky Yencharis, will be longer be driving. She is ready to sell her vehicle and would like to avoid advertising in the paper and dealing with the general public. The car is a 2006 Toyota Camry with only 15,000 miles, royal blue and four door. Asking $15,000. Becky’s phone is 798-3165. Speak clearly because Becky’s hearing is not as good as it used to be. You can also consider contacting Ralph McKinney.

Links for Runners:
New Balance Brandywine & Christiana stores offer a 20% discount to current
club members. http://www.NBretail.com

Club member Joanne Hennessy Slawter offers 10% discount to PCVRC members: http://www.MassageForAthletes

Reindeer Run and Romp 5K
Race Results: We are coming into the cold, slow season of running, but there are a few races still occurring. At the Reindeer Run and Romp 5K in Newark last Friday evening age group awards were won by Tom Jermyn, Tom Steenkamer, Dan Simmons, Jim Durkin and April Hubbard. It’s great to see that April was able to participate in this event.

Tom Steenkamer ran 17:34, which, I believe, is a PR. Tom is at that magical time in his running life when PRs seem to come with almost every succeeding race.

Rehoboth Seashore Marathon or Half-Marathon
Rehoboth Seashore Marathon results:
3:12:51 Adam Shilling, Boston Qualifier and Person Best
3:22:09 Dirk Sweigart, BQ and 4th 50-54
3:55:37 Mark Holliday
3:56:56 Mary Holliday BQ and 2nd 55-59

Rehoboth Seashore Half-Marathon results:
1:16:17 Josh Loren, 1st 30-34 and 2nd Overall
1:21:57 Tom Jermyn, 1st 45-49 and 5th OA
1:30:56 Lee Kauffman, 2nd 50-54
1:33:10 Karl Kalbacher, 2nd 45-49
1:36:35 Wes Stafford
1:39:20 Rich Szymanski
1:48:42 Jim Steele
1:53:21 Claire Neilan
1:53:39 Paul Schweizer
2:00:19 Jordan Fridman
2:00:21 Tricia Szymanski
2:05:51 Ray Feehery

Due to injuries Racheel and mother Gail Bleacher and Paula Jermyn, who was training for her first half-marathon, were unable to participate.

Club vice-president Claire Neilan presented a check for $250 on behalf of Pike Creek Valley Running Club to Dana Casanave, who has been running marathons every week since January 24 to raise money for orphans of women who had AIDS in South Africa. Her original quest was to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks, but since she has run two marathons in one weekend three times, Rehoboth will be her 50th marathon and she may run 55 before she finishes on Jan. 15.

I first became aware of Dana when she passed me in the B & A Marathon in March, with a sign pinned to her back about her quest and her website (http://www.52beginnings.com/). I’ve since seen her at four other marathons, the latest being the Northern Central Trail Marathon, in which she again passed me late in the race and finished a couple minutes faster. Of course, I didn’t immediately get on a plane, fly to Florida, and run the Space Coast Marathon the next day as she did.

I have followed her blog all year. After running a 4:06 at B & A, her times slowed, sometimes to over five hours, as the weather warmed up and I thought all the marathoning was going to injure her. But as the weather cooled, her times started to improve. She ran a 4:03 at Fox City. Then in October, she started doubling up. I want to know how she has adapted to being able to do this and, during the Northern Central race, I commented that she ought to write a book since her blog is well-written, moving, and entertaining.

Anyway, I suggested to the board that the charity she is running for be one of the ones that we give a donation to this year. I’m glad the board agreed. I have never seen anyone before dedicate so much running to such a compassionate cause. Dana is a role model for others to emulate.

Registration Alert
On-line registration for the Annapolis 10 Mile Run, which always sells out very quickly, will open one month earlier next year on May 1, instead of June 1. The date is the last Sunday of August (28th). The registration link will be here http://annapolisstriders.org/ when registration opens

Politics in Running
I know most of us use running as an escape from some of the nasty issues reality throws at us. Running is pure, simple, straight forward. What can politics possibly have to do with it? Unfortunately, when it comes to elite competition, quite a bit! Please check out this article posted by the founder of marathonguide.com about the shameful ruling by USATF that American citizens can’t compete in USA championship races unless they have been citizens for a full two years. This is plain discrimination and has no place in running. I hope in some small way our club, through the regional Mid-Atlantic USATF organization, can apply some pressure on the national USATF which made this ruling. Read the article and follow the discussion at: ttp://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/runner-communities/masters/new-usatf-rule-restricting-can-run-usa-championship-races?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Runner%20CommunitiesForum:648106477Discussion:f7352725-b3cd-4eda-bfc5-23a843e73912Post:1aae8270-7b74-485c-a684-aa848332c3a9

Holiday Party Reminder
Please mark your calendar to join us at Timothy’s, 100 Creek View Road, Newark on Wednesday, 12/15 from 6:30-9:00pm. Plan to renew your member dues for 2011 ($25) since
the first 100 will receive our new club technical t-shirt compliments of New
Balance Brandywine & Christiana. Invite prospective club members to come as well. There will be a donation box towards food in case they’re not prepared to join at that time.

Besides food (on the club) and cash bar, announcements will include how to
obtain a free or discounted club singlet. Your input will be appreciated
for member awards and for potential club events for the coming year.
We hope to see 50-60 people attend, so please inform Rachel if you’re likely
to be there:

For directions click here

Delaware Cross-County Championship 5K Results
On Saturday the last race of the MA-USATF Off-Road series, the Delaware Cross-County Championship 5K, took place at Brandywine Creek State Park. Pike Creek Valley Running club had a great attendance and scored well in the race. This was the wrap up event of the series and PCVRC ended up placing second overall with 2233.404 points to 2343.977 for the Philadelphia track Club. this finish was enable the club to receive a check for $350, in addition to the one for $100 we will receive for our sixth place finish in the Grand Prix series.

Top five scores in bold – – Time Age grade
Feole Carole 52 DE 24:34.5 69.95
Knothe Lynn 33 DE 21:39.9 68.67
Avendano Ivan 62 PA 24:21.2 67.01
Crispin Keith 43 DE 19:43.8 70.836
Durkin Jim 72 PA 29:17.7 61.582
James Christopher 36 DE 21:45.9 60.996

Kleszics Bob 53 PA 21:46.4 69.448
Lavelle Philip 51 DE 31:49.3 46.726
McKinney Ralph 65 DE 36:15.7 46.252
Shufflebarger Fred 62 PA 22:58.0 71.044
Simmons Dan 63 DE 23:39.3 69.626
Steenkamer Tom 52 MD 19:30.1 76.837
Szymanski Rich 46 DE 23:15.0 61.433

Overall in the individual Off-Road Competition were the following:
Josh Loren – Open Male Winner
Tom Jermyn – 3rd Masters Male
Tom Steemkamer – 3rd Grand Masters Male
Fred Shufflebarger – Seniors Male Winner
Deborah Compton – 2nd Senior Female

Others who scored points in the series (and one must finish in the top three of a race division in order to score points) were: Austin Gee, Ryan German, Matt Cutrona, Epi Camacho, Dan Simmons, Tara Huang, Lynn Knothe, and Carole Feole.

The club thanks Rich Szymanski who has been on a singular mission for a couple years to grow our base of competitive runners for both of the MA-USATF series.

Other race results:
There were so many runners in the MS Races on Thanksgiving Day that it is worth mentioning club members who placed in their age groups:

10K
43:11 Sheila Vilardo, 1st 35-39
44:00 Theresa Kauffman, 2nd 45-49
40:46 Lee Kauffman, 2nd 50-54
42:50, Dan Simmons, 1st 60-64
1:00:58 Jerry Herman, 3rd 65-69
5K
25:33, Jim Durkin, 1st 70+

North Central Trail Marathon, Sparks, MD, 11/27
4:19:03 Dave McCorquodale. 2nd 65-69

For those not familiar with the North Central Trail, it’s a former railroad bed. The surface is mostly crushed gravel and dirt, so it feels like a road. There are no obstacles, like roots and rocks, but there is nice scenery if one is inclined to look. Mark Lozier made the trek and drove, but he had to pull the plug on his run about 4 and 1/2 miles into it when his left calf cramped up, apparently due to too much yard work in the preceding week.

Don’t miss our Holiday Party
Thanks to President Ray Christensen for saving my fingers by writing this first section:

Please mark your calendar to join us at Timothy’s, 100 Creek View Road, Newark on Wednesday, 12/15 from 6:30-9:00pm. Plan to renew your member dues for 2011 ($25) since
the first 100 will receive our new club technical t-shirt compliments of New
Balance Brandywine & Christiana. Invite prospective club members to come as well. There will be a donation box towards food in case they’re not prepared to join at that time.

Besides food (on the club) and cash bar, announcements will include how to
obtain a free or discounted club singlet. Your input will be appreciated
for member awards and for potential club events for the coming year.
We hope to see 50-60 people attend, so please inform Rachel if you’re likely
to be there:

For directions click here

Newark Turkey Trot:
While our USATF team was racing the Rothman 8K, I enjoyed the gorgeous weather with a number of other club members at the Newark Turkey Trot, running both the 10K and 5K. In the latter, Tom Steenkamer, Dan Simmons and Jim Durkin each won their age groups.

Philadelphia Marathon
On Sunday, several of us cheered on Philadelphia Marathoners at the
interesting 3-way intersection at Falls Bridge. Club VP Claire Neilan PR’ed by a couple minutes in the marathon while her husband Jordan Fridman PR’ed
in the Half! Matt Cutrona also scored a marathon PR with Wes Stafford, Adam
Shilling, Kristen Stump & Glen Beringer also running 26.2 and Stacey Schiller completing the Half.

New Little Runner
The Club congratulates Tara and Lei Huang on the birth of their daughter Emma Jane (7 lb 4 oz / 20 inches) on 11/13. In the months and weeks before the birth, Tara continued to run, then jog, then walk at Delcastle, even on bad weather days when others stayed indoors. Tara looks forward to training with her new daughter and is already registered for Pittsburgh Marathon in May. The buzz on her Facebook page is that in the past week, she’s lost 30
pounds.

From Sheila and Mark Vilardo:
Hi Everyone,
We are having a Christmas Party Saturday December 18th at around 5:30. Come and have dinner, drinks and dessert. Just let us know if you can make it. We look forward to seeing all of you. Just email vilardo.Sheila@gmail. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

The Vilardo’s live at: 222 Cornell Drive, Bear, DE 19701. For directions, see: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Bear&state=DE&address=222+Cornwell+Dr&zipcode=19701-3128&country=US&latitude=39.567349&longitude=-75.690029&geocode=ADDRESS

Race Results:
Wes Stafford ran the Fresno Marathon on Nov. 6 in 3:22, which is a Boston Qualifying time. Also see below.

USATF Race Series update
Complete USATF age-grade results and the year-end wrap-up will be available in the next bulletin. However, preliminary information indicates that the team scored well enough in the Rothman 8K to move the club from seven to fourth place in the final standings of the series. This Saturday the Delaware XC Championship will be the last event in the Off-Road Series.

Rothman 8K
27:05 Josh Loren
32:24 Lee Kauffman
33:01 Dirk Sweigart
35:07 Rich Szymanski
35:24 Theresa Kauffman
40:44 Deborah Compton, 2nd 60-64
46:44 Jerry Herman

Philadelphia Half-Marathon
1:39:53 Dan Simmons
1:49:18 Jordan Fridman
2:28:12 Stacey Schiller

Philadelphia Marathon
3:02:49 Matt Cutrona, PR & BQ
3:29:23 Wes Stafford, (two weeks after Fresno!)
3:42:56 Claire Neilan,, PR & BQ
3:42:58 Adam Shilling, (providing moral support for Claire)
3:50:49 Kristen Stump, PR by over 4 minutes
4:09:33 Glen Beringer, first marathon