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

Come to Club Holiday Party on Wed 12/15
Pike Creek Valley Running Club’s annual holiday party will be held at Timothy’s, 100 Creek View Road, Newark, DE on Wednesday, December 15, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. this location is right off Paper Mill Road, overlooking White Clay Creek. For directions, see events page.

As mentioned in the previously, by the time of the party, the club should have available 100 new club short-sleeve techshirts, provided by New Balance Brandywine and Christiana stores. Therefore, shirts will be given out at club functions, starting with the holiday party, until they are gone. So it’s first come, first served and it behooves members to come to the club functions. Sorry, only one shirt per household.

Tom Steenkamer’s Fast Family
Club member Tom Steenkamer‘s son and daughter, both enrolled at St. Marks H.S., placed highly in the Delaware X-Country Championship 5K Race last Saturday at Brandywine Creek State Park. In the Division One competition Chris Steenkamer was third boy overall in 17:27; sister Katrina was sixth girl overall in 20:31. Also in the Division One Girls race, Tom’s niece Meredith Steenkamer, who runs for Charter H.S., was fourth in 20:19.

Delaware runners can take pride in the fact that three girls, Haley Pierce, Julie Macedo, and Lindsey Olivere, all broke the ten year-old course record and became the first Delaware girls to break nineteen minutes on this course. Most likely these talented runners will go on to collegiate running careers.

No racing highlights to report this week. However there is some slightly late club news:

Happy Birthday to Joe DeRosa, who turned 80 on Tuesday!

Happy belated birthday to Don Monagle, who turned 80 in August!

John Schultz learned several weeks ago that he had developed a blood clot in a leg. He could not participate in the Marine Corps Marathon. It will be a full three months before he can race again. The club wishes John a quick recovery.

Come to Club Holiday Party
Pike Creek Valley Running club’s annual holiday party will be held at Timothy’s, 100 Creek View Road, Newark, DE on Wednesday, December 15, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. this location is right off Paper Mill Road, overlooking White Clay Creek. For directions click here!

As mentioned in the previous bulletin, by the time of the party, the club should have available 100 new club short-sleeve techshirts, provided by New Balance Brandywine and Christiana stores. Therefore, shirts will be given out at club functions, starting with the holiday party, until they are gone. So it’s first come, first served and it behooves members to come to the club functions. Sorry, only one shirt per household.

Bridge Challenge 10K
The sixth event of the Mid-Atlantic Grand Prix Series, the Bridge Challenge 10K was held on Sunday, starting at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden, N.J. Unfortunately only three club USATF members participated. While these three participants ran well, with Matt Cutrona placing first in his 40-44 age group, registration for three others was turned away by the race organization after the registration reached the capped number of 4,000.

It is the feeling of some PCVRC members that race organizations participating in this series should ignore the cap number when MA-USATF participants wish to register. Otherwise, perhaps those races should not be part of the series. Our displeasure with our members being turned away from participating has been communicated to MA-USATF officials.

However, the good news is that the lowest team score among the seven events is dropped when the results are added up. So this event is PCVRC’s “low score”. Hopefully, there will be a full complement of runner’s among the three events on Philadelphia Marathon weekend (Nov. 20-21), which together count as the final event of the series for 2010.

Also note that the Delaware Open XC Championship 5K in Brandywine Creek State Park to be held on Saturday, Nov. 27, is the final event of the Off-Road Series. There are always great random prizes at this event.

Bridge Results:
SIMMONS DANIEL NEWARK DE 153
43 7 79.513

CUTRONA MATTHEW WILMINGTON DE 38
36 59 76.836
KAUFFMAN WILLIAM WILMINGTON DE 102
41 12 75.728

Race Results:
Lynn Knothe was fifth overall woman in the Amish Country Bird-In-Hand Half Marathon with a time of 1:34:16. However, she reported that she was not happy with the rolling, grooved roads nor with the for-profit race organization.

Two club finishers in the New York Marathon:
3:01:25 Keith Crispin 1st Delaware finisher
3:24:34 Mudhillun Muqaribu

Veterans’ Day 5K
18:05 Greg Cauller 3rd Overall
19:41 Lynn Knothe 1st Overall Female
23:26 Christopher Lavelle 1st 1-13 At 10 years old, this is his first race.
25:32 Linda Lavelle Linda has been running with Chris’ school team and has been trying to keep a maternal eye on Chris. This is the fastest 5K she has run in seven years and was three minutes faster than the times she was running in the summer at the Laws XC 5Ks.

Reminder: I check the local results as well as big events. But I can’t check everything nor do I always see the names of every club member. Send your results if I have missed them. Better yet, write a story if you had a memorable experience.

Holiday Party is Wed 12/15
Holiday Party: Last evening the board of PCVRC decided on the date and time for the annual holiday party: Wednesday, December 15, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Social director is still checking with several restaurants for a possible location. A decision should be announced by next week.

Club shirts: By the time of the holiday party, the club should have available 100 new club short-sleeve techshirts, provided by New Balance Brandywine and Christiana stores. Therefore, shirts will be given out at club functions, starting with the holiday party, until they are gone. So it’s first come, first served and it behooves members to come to the club functions. Sorry, only one shirt per household.

Club makes Charitable Donations
Part the mission of Pike Creek Valley Running Club is to promote fitness through athleticism and physical activity by not only being examples and helping others, but providing financial support from the funds raised through our signature race, the Delaware Distance Classic, and from other club income. To that end the board has decided to issue checks to three charities:

From the DDC bank account, $500 to the Mike Clark Legacy Foundation (http://www.mclf.org/). Mike was a local triathlete, know to many in the community, who passed away suddenly a few years ago. The foundation promotes physical activity.

From the DDC account, $250 to Back on My Feet (http://www.backonmyfeet.org/). BOMF is a nonprofit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of homeless populations by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. It has chapter in several large, mostly Atlantic Coast cities. Club member Austin Gee has worked for this organization.

From the PCVRC account, $250 to 25:40, Inc. This organization is raising money to help orphans of mothers who had AIDS in South Africa. A young woman, Dana Casanave, is running 52 marathons (http://www.52beginnings.com/) in a year, attempting to raise money to help 52 children. Each run is dedicated to a particular child. Being from Virginia, she has run many of her races on the Eastern seaboard and has completed 41. Before she is done will run in this area at the North Central Trail, Philadelphia and Rehoboth Marathons. The board hopes to able present her with the check at the awards of the Rehoboth Marathon.

Club members are encouraged to let board members know of other charities the club could help in future years. In general we want to support those that have some connection to running and/or fitness.

Radnor Run Five Miler results
After six events Pike Creek Valley Running Club continues to hold fourth place in the very competitive Grand Prix series of MA-USATF. The sixth event was the Radnor Run Five Miler. Below are the individual times and age grades. Next up this coming Sunday is the Bridge Challenge 10K. Go team!

STEENKAMER THOMAS RISING SUN MD 18
29 58 82.036
CAMACHO EPI WILMINGTON DE 50
32 19 77.978
KAUFFMAN WILLIAM WILMINGTON DE 55
32 57 75.215
SWEIGART DIRK NEWARK DE 94
35 17 69.107
HOROWITZ KELLY LANDENBERG PA 138
37 23 65.359
SZYMANSKI RICHARD WILMINGTON DE 118
36 42 64.396
HOROWITZ JACK LANDENBERG PA 139
37 24 63.681

People are starting to take advantage of letting me know about their race results that I wasn’t aware of. So I apologize that some of these results are several weeks old.

Tom wins half marathon
Tom Jermyn was the overall winner on October 16 of the Run for the Buds Half Marathon, which started at Rockford Park, crossed over the Brandywine to Alapocas Park and out to Rock Manor Golf Course before returning. Rather hilly, but Tom negotiated it in 1:24:36. In this event Matt Cutrona was fourth overall in 1:29:28 and Chris James was 5th in 1:33:14.

From Tricia Szymanski (about Rich Szymanski): Rich decided, totally last minute (early sat evening!) to run the Atlantic City Marathon – 10/17/2010 ~ his birthday and coincidentally his “17th” marathon as well! He got up at 4:00 a.m. and was gone by 4:30 a.m. ~ well, he did have to still register of course!! With only two weeks since his last marathon, Wineglass in Corning NY, he did an impressive 3:48:38! Josh [Loren] followed along w/ his bike and kept me posted back in De as to his time and whereabouts on the course. Great medal and course ~ all w/i less than 2 hours drive. A very good birthday indeed 🙂 !

From Claire Neilan: We had a number of Pike Creekers attend the Paws for People Wag-n-Walk 5K Run at Glasgow Park on Saturday[10/23]. This is a super event, especially if you are a dog owner, because you can run with your dog! They have a special award category for runners who participate in the 5K with their pooch. Greeting the dogs at the finish line are volunteers handing out dog treats. Good post-race spread….bagels, bananas, granola bars, muffins, krispie treats, and fruit drinks. Barbara Chelpaty volunteers with the organization, with her dog Tempo. PCVRC runners took home a number of awards, and Adam Shilling had a PR of 19.24 (2 weeks after running Steamtown!).

In attendance were myself, Jordan Fridman, Lori Culnane, Chris James, Tricia and Rich Szymanski, Lenora Wagner (spectating!), Barbara Chelpaty, Sharon Miner, Adam Shilling, Epi Camacho (18:59, 1st Master), Dan Weintraub, and Jim Steele. The fastest pooch ran a 20:40 – pretty speedy! Our dog, Shelly, managed a 25:18 with myself and Jordan. Also included in the festivities was a kiddie dash in which Adam’s twins
participated and were given a medal each at the finish. All in all, a fun 5K – and would be highly recommended if you are dog-friendly and looking for something different.

(Editor’s Note: Anyone involved in the organization of a race is welcome to publicize it in advance by letting me know about it.)

I missed the result for Caitlin Reilly, one of the club’s newest (and youngest members), in the Caffe Gelato 10 Miler. Her time was 1:29:42. She relates that she used to race in high school, but not so much in college. Now she looks to be picking up the pace as she gets into more racing.

Marine Corps Marathon, October 31
3:32:32 Theresa Kauffman Boston Qualifier
3:49:43 Chris James

E-Racing the Blues 10K, October 31
37:02 Matt Cutrona 3rd Overall and 1st 40-44