Final Reminder – Boston Send-off Party:
We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Weekend highlights:
Tom Jermyn was the top masters runner and second overall in the JoJo D’Occhio Fdn. 5K in 17:46

Theresa Kauffman was the overall female winner of the Prompt and Play 5K in 21:01.

Club members at the Garden Spot Marathon and Half-Marathon:
Austin Gee ran a 2:51:29 to finish fourth overall and 1st in the 20-24 age group. Although he had hoped to run closer to 2:45, he siad that there were “more hills than I thought”. (See account below.) Austin also was part of the winning relay team, the Negative Splits, along with Josh Loren and two other men, which finished in the same time of 2:51:29. Essentially the other members of the relay team acted as pacers for Austin.

Dave McCorquodale (me) finished the marathon in 4:20:45, good enough for third in the 65-69 AG. The first finisher in the AG, who is 67, finished in 3:43:56. Ironically the first 60-64 male ran 4:48:18.

Steve Thorpe ran 5:34:07.

Dirk Sweigart ran 1:34:37 in the half-marathon and was first in the 50-54 AG. His first place finish was made possible because top three male masters finishers were all over 50.

Garden Spot as a race venue: These races are located in New Holland, Pa., a mere 45 to 60 minutes from anywhere in Northern Delaware. The races start and finish at the retirement community of Garden Spot Village, a retirement community where Dirk’s parents live. Many of the residents, including Dirk’s father, volunteered for the race. The races occur in beautiful, rolling, Lancaster county, past dozens of Amish farms.

This course has some unique things to experience: After the initial five miles were closed to traffic, the roads were open to traffic, but it was scarce. In fact the Amish buggies, pulled by horses cantering along, were almost as numerous as the cars. This meant that one had to be alert to dodge the small brown mounds left on the road. Occasionally one was greeted by the pungent aromas from where cattle were gathered or from fields with freshly spread manure.

The course featured one major hill, crested twice at mile 5 and mile 22. From the course map, it appeared that in between there weren’t many hills, but course maps are deceptive. In fact, the course constantly rolled with only a few miles of relative flat areas. While I was trying to maintain a pace about 9:30, going downhill from the first crest was such a drop that I ran an 8:36 mile. I commented to the guy next to me that I was going to pay for that on the way back. Sure enough on the equivalent mile returning, I clocked a 12:41 which included several minutes where the slope was too steep to run anymore and I walked.

Then there was the wind. Starting at 12 mph, it picked up after the first hour to constant speeds of 15 mph with gusts of 23 mph. After passing the half-marathon turnaround at about seven and a half miles, suddenly it seemed the runners were more exposed to the wind and constantly running into it for the next seven miles. Then we had the wind at our backs until mile 24 when again we had to run the last two miles into a headwind.

The volunteers were friendly; Good water, Gatorade and gel stops; enough food at the end. I highly recommend this venue as long as you aren’t looking for a PR. The races and relay were capped at a total of 1,100 and are probably going to be limited to that number in the future. Next year this race will occur two weeks earlier because of some construction going on in the area.

LDAF Half Marathon
Results of club members in the LDAF Half-Marathon which took place in Lewes on Sunday:
Adam Shilling 1:30:27 2nd 35-39
Wes Stafford 1:35:57 2nd 45-49
Carole Feole 1:42:43 1st 50-54

Boston Send-off / Spring Party
Not sure how many club members actually are signed up for Boston this year after the early close-out last November. But this get-together is more a welcoming of the spring running season and a good reason to get together to swap running tales and future racing goals. We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
If you’re not yet a member, join and meet us!

Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run – MAUSATF results
Last Saturday Pike Creek Valley Running Club had a team which did well in the Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run. It scored 346+ points to finish second among the five teams in the race and it’s currently second overall after two events, trailing Greater Philadelphia Track Club by 20 points. However, the next two teams are close, so this will be an exciting competition this year. The next event in the series will be the Triple Crown 10K Run in Carpenter State Park, Newark. Club member John Mackenzie is the Race Director of this event. So let’s have a great turn-out.

The following club members age-group standings after to events are: Tara Huang, Tied for 1st, open Female; Josh Loren, T4th, Open Male; Tom Jermyn, T1st Masters Male; Tom Steenkamer, 3rd, Grandmasters Male; and fred Shufflebarger, 1st, Seniors Male.

Ray Christensen’s Tyler Arboretum 10K Trail Run recap:

Weather for Saturday’s 10K in Media was a far cry from the warmth of CR weekend. It must have been under 30 degrees for the 9am start, but 360 runners enjoyed a fairly non-technical course through the beautiful park, highlighted by four stream crossings where we had the option of tip-toeing across on stones or splashing through for wet feet. With tech tees, tree seedlings and great food for all runners, it would have been a satisfying morning already. But with Josh, Tom J, Tom S and Fred all placing in their 10 year age groups, our team scored well. Lorri Fencer had a nice run as our all-important lone female runner. We always carpool, so if you’d like so check out some pretty places to run outside of Wilmington, join USATF and become part of our road or trail teams (see http://www.pcvrc.com/gp.php). Don’t worry about speed. That’s what the fast guys are for.

133 56:26 LORRI FENCER 49 60.129
28 44:47 EPI CAMACHO 54 70.822

85 52:02 RAYMOND CHRISTENSEN 48 58.071

13 41:36 TOM JERMYN 47 72.035

4 38:26 JOSH LOREN E M 29 69.904

41 47:25 FRED SHUFFLEBARGER 61 71.036

19 42:54 TOM STEENKAMER 51 72.144

Adrenalin 5K & Caesar Rodney times and USATF results
Pike Creek Valley RC had an excellent turn-out at both of the MA-USATF events held this weekend. The results for the MA-USATF races are printed below. These weekend was unique in that two of the MA-USATF races took place. So for this one-time circumstance, the scores for both events were combined as one event. If a runner competed in both, the higher age-grade was counted if it was among the top five club score; a second score by the same runner in the top five did not count and the next person’s age-grade was used. This combined event yielded 11 teams which qualified, which is most likely the highest number of teams yet competing to score in a MA-USATF event and there were several other teams which did not meet all of the qualifying thresholds.

Currently, after this first event, PCVRC stands sixth out of the eleven scored teams with 402.743 points. Currently in first is new team Moorestown District Running Project with 416+. However, it remains to be seen whether all of these teams will continue to turn out for the series races. Several teams, which appear to be organized around running stores, usually have a good showing at the Adrenaline 5K and, thereafter, participation in the other events is spotty. One new team is the Athena Track Club, comprised of husband and wife, Greg Watson and Cecily Tynan, who were the male and female masters winners of the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon, plus Julie Hankin and Lorraine Jasper – two good long-time female area runners – and eighty year-old Patrick Nutt. It’s is questionable that this team will stay in the points chase through the series also.

Thanks to all PCVRC participants! Next up is the off-road 10K at the Tyler Arboreteum. The Valley Forge Five Miler is the next Road Series race.

USATF AGE GRADE COMBINED RESULTS
David James – 18:20 86.000 ADR
Epi Camacho – 1:25:54 80.694 ROD
Deborah Compton – 24:12 80.165 ADR
Thomas Steenkamer – 1:26:35 77.998 ROD
Robert Taggart – 22:23 77.885 ADR
Deborah Compton – 1:53:24 76.102 ROD
Theresa Kauffman – 21:22 75.819 ADR
Dirk Sweigart – 19:55 74.059 ADR
Carole Feole – 1:43:18 73.088 ROD
William Kauffman – 1:33:19 72.995 ROD
Theresa Kauffman – 1:39:33 72.359 ROD
Dirk Sweigart – 1:34:16 71.022 ROD
Kelly Horowitz – 1:34:44 70.162 ROD
Dean Coffin – 30:34 69.449 ADR
David McCorquodale – 2:00:38 63.650 ROD
Raymond Christensen – 1:44:01 63.291 ROD
Mudhillun Muqaribu – 1:34:26 62.707 ROD
Connie Montana – 1:56:45 61.085 ROD
Daniel Weintraub – 1:53:32 59.997 ROD
John Schultz – 32:49 59.929 ADR
Michael Peyton – 1:45:55 59.182 ROD
Jack Horowitz – 1:54:26 57.530 ROD
Tara Huang – 1:55:53 56.810 ROD
Ralph McKinney – 29:58 55.951 ADR
John Schultz – 2:44:08 54.478 ROD

Haddonfield (N.J.) Adrenaline 5K
David James – 18:20 1st 55-59
Dirk Sweigart – 19:55
Dean Coffin – 20:34
Theresa Kauffman – 21:22
Bob Taggart – 22:23 2nd 65-69
Deborah Compton – 24:12 1st 60-64
Ralph McKinney – 29:45
John Schultz – 32:49 3rd 70+

Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon
(used band time, not gun time, mainly so I wouldn’t have a time over 2 hrs)
Mark Vilardo – 1:12:05 1st 35-39 4th Overall
Thomas Steenkamer – 1:26:35
Adam Shilling – 1:32:04
Wes Stafford – 1:33:39
Dirk Sweigart – 1:34:10
Chris James – 1:34:24
Kelly Horowitz – 1:34:31
Ryan German – 1:34:42
Theresa Kauffman – 1:39:31 3rd 45-49
Dan Simmons – 1:40:10 3rd 60-64
Tony Chelpaty – 1:42:02
Carole Feole – 1:43:14 3rd 50-54
Dave Farren – 1:43:21
Ray Christensen – 1:43:44
Epi Camacho – 1:47:54
Claire Neilan – 1:49:33
John Hand – 1:50:57
Lorri Fencer – 1:51:09
Deborah Compton – 1:53:16 2nd 60-64
Dan Weintraub – 1:53:24
Jack Horowitz – 1:53:54
Mark Lozier – 1:54:50
Tara Huang – 1:55:33
Connie Montana – 1:55:53
Florian Nettlesheim – 1:57:00
Dave McCorquodale – 1:59:42 2nd 65-69
Bruce Hubbard – 2:01:47
Elena Kupchik – 2:07:24
Rudy Antonini – 2:13:36
Lenora Wagner – 2:23:47
Jerry Herman – 2:30:14
John Schultz – 2:43:31

Caesar Rodney Teams with Pike Creek runners (accumulated time of top five finishers):
Rebel Pikers – 3rd Male Open – 8:40:56
Rebel Creekers – 1st Female Open – 8:56:08

Join us at Boston Send-off Party 4/14
Not sure how many club members actually are signed up for Boston this year after the early close-out last November. But this get-together is more a welcoming of the spring running season and a good reason to get together to swap running tales and future racing goals. We will again be meeting at the Hunter’s Den, 3517 Old Capitol trail, Wilmington, DE 19808. As always we have this of the last Wednesday evening before the Boston Marathon, this year April 14, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

DE Sports Club Boston Bus
From Tom Fort: Delaware Sports Club’s Boston Bus Trip – We have about 10 seats left on the Boston Bus. We are relaxing the requirements in order to fill the seats. At this point, any one can join us and take in the Boston Marathon celebration. The only limit, we do not want bandits. Please contact Doug White for more information or to make a reservation. 302-588-4880 First come- first served.

Josh wins Catalina!
An item overlooked in the last bulletin: Congratulations to Josh Loren who won the Catalina Marathon on Catalina Island, California. This is a race run on gravel surfaces with constant elevation changes. Everyone describes the scenery as breathtaking. Josh won in a time of 3:02:04, bettering the second finisher by two and a half minutes.

Broad Street Run closing soon
Ralph McKinney reports that online registration for the Broad Street Run 10 Miler to be held on May 2 will probably close by next Thursday. However, it will still be possible to do mail-in registration.

Rome Marathon PCVRC runners
Congratulations to Tricia and Rich Szymanski for completing the Rome Marathon. Trish set a PR with a 4:40:38 time, while Rich finished in 5:17:03, which, according to club prez Ray is “a great time for his training plan”.

Trish’s recap:
Quick recap…. was warm! started out sunny and the warmest day so far but got overcast later on so that was good. NO toilet paper, before, during or AFTER the race in their toi toi (port o pots)…UGH! not sure how many people ran, but it was many more than i thought. it took us over 10 minutes to reach the start. rich and i ran together for the first 10, he kept telling me to leave him but was fine staying w- him until he just said go…so did try to make up time and got negative splits too..woo hoo. but i paid for it in teh end,,the last couple of miles were a struggle….

great medal, and very organized, and rich came in at 517, great time considering the no training! he was not that miserable either. omgosh..the wine here is amazing…!! and cheap!! the first night we got a couple bottles of wine, cheese and crackers and sat on the spanish steps and drank all night. of course, by then, only my sister and i were there..um..well, we couldnt find our way back to ourhotel…despite it being one block from spanish steps..ok..the wine was really good ok!!

Board members and coordinator positions
President Ray Christensen announces that Josh Loren will be joining the PCVRC board and will be our Training Coodinator. Bob Taggart, who has served many years as the club Treasurer before Joel Schiller assumed that role this year, has resigned from the board.

Ray is also looking for people to fill the following position, which do not require the person to be a part of the board: As of now, open positions are Charity liaison, Volunteer coordinator, Sponsorship coordinator, (2) FB Group administrators, PR/publicity coordinator – and possibly “Walking coordinator”. Ray and the rest of the board will help define any role that any member is interesting in assuming. Contact Ray at:

Volunteers needed for Logan House 5K
Wayne Kursh is looking for volunteers to help at registration at the Kelly’s Logan House 5K this Sunday. In exchange, he will give one free race entry per volunteer. So a non-running person could volunteer and a running spouse or friend could be in the race or the volunteer could also run the race. Contact Wayne at: .

UD Tuesday Track Workouts
For anyone interested in the Tuesday night track workouts at the University of Delaware, here is an attachment with the schedule. All workouts will now be outside: See Schedule

Ugly Mudder 6.75 mile trail race
On Sunday Pike Creek Valley Running Club competed in the first event of the MA- USATF Off-Road Series for 2010, the Ugly Mudder race, which is listed as 6.75 miles. This is a difficult challenge, which the age-grades reflect. However, all participants had the same rough course to negotiate. PCVRC scored second out of the five clubs with 241+ points. The Philadelphia Track Club with 254+ points was first. Many thanks to first-time participants, Tara Huang and Tom Steenkamer, as well as those who were participants in past years.

314 1: 31:04 SZYMANSKI RICHARD – 45 36.337
113 1: 18:00 HUANG TARA – 28 42.948

103 1: 17:36 CAMACHO EPI – 54 45.914
126 1: 19:01 SHUFFLEBARGERFRED – 61 47.962
21- 1: 15:07 JERMYN TOM – 47 51.636

40- 1: 15:35 STEENKAMER TOM – 51 52.973 241.433

Awards Banquet & election of officers
On Saturday evening PCVRC held its annual Election of Officers and Awards Banquet. The following were elected officers for 2010: Ray Christensen, President; Claire Neilan, Vice-President; Jerry herman, treasurer; and Joel Schiller, Treasurer. Jerry Herman received a round of applause for serving four consecutive years as President. Bob Taggart also deserves our appreciation for serving eight years as Treasurer.

Ray Christensen spoke for about five minutes, outlining his ideas about the club. To read the speech, click here.

Guest Speaker was David Albaugh of the Wellness Community Delaware, who described the goals of the Wellness Community. David is a marathon runner, who is organizing a trip to the Las Vegas Marathon in December 2010 for Las Vegas Strides, the fund-raising program of the Wellness Community. PCVRC hopes to forge a relationship with the Wellness Community to help mentor new runners.

Major Awards were given to the following club members: Rich Szymanski, Volunteer of the Year; Dean Coffin, Member of the Year; Carole Feole, Outstanding Achivement(OA); Kelly Horowitz, OA; Andy Jakubowitch, OA, Josh Loren, OA; David James, Runner of the Year.

Glasses: The club also came up with the award of a glass with the club’s logo on it for what it is temporarily calling Notable Achievers (name open for alternatives). Since this was the first year, dozens of people were chosen to receive this award. Following is a list of those who received the award, but were not in attendance to get their glass. The glasses will be available a future club functions or make arrangements with a club officer to get one. They will not be mailed.

There was an inquiry about buying a glass, but they are awards for some sort of effort related to running and the club. They will not be for sale, but individuals are always free to tell board members what they think they have done to earn a club glass at the next award banquet.

The following still need to pick up their glasses: Epi Camacho, Lori Culnane, Lorri Fencer, Tom Fort, Austin Gee, Ryan German, Scott Hodukavich, Margie Hughes, Tom Jermyn, Theresa Kauffman, Sharon Miner, Dirk Sweigart,

PCVRC Online:
Don’t forget about our web presence: Check our website at: http://www.pcvrc.com/ and our Facebook Page at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=289855916248&ref=ts. You must sign up for Facebook to view the latter.
Already 107 people have signed up for this page, but only six have posted any kind of comment. Use it to talk about weather conditions, find car pool partners, ask questions, or any thoughts about running.