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.

The Marathon That Imploded  by Dave McCorquodale
Some of you may already by aware that after 6,600 people traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to run a marathon or half-marathon this past Saturday, the city management cancelled the races. Why? Because it was snowing the night before, the first time it had snowed in 12 years in Myrtle Beach.

While this unusual weather certainly called for caution or, perhaps, postponement for a couple of hours to see if the conditions improved, such was not to be. The race was called at 10 p.m. the night before as we were settling in and watching the Olympics. So say that I was stunned is an understatement. I think I remained in that condition for two days. Now the anger is building.

The city manager said it was his decision, but that he did it because the race directors were concerned about not having their medical “volunteers” if the race went off later. Aren’t the medical staff PAID for being there? Plus, the roads stay open to traffic and they were concerned about runners being on the same roads with vehicles in icy conditions.

This event has grown in ten years from about a thousand to over 6,600 this year and that doesn’t include the accompanying bike races which went off on Sunday outside of Myrtle Beach. It’s bordering on being a big time event. I say, with that growth, comes the responsibility to have contingency plans for the odd year when there is “bad” weather. Maybe some streets should be dedicated to just runners with no vehicles. Maybe the course route needs to be adjusted to less traveled streets. The fact of the matter was that by 9:00 A.M. the roads were free of slush or the few patches of black ice. See the picture attachment below, taken by Scott Hodukavich, to see what conditions were like at 11:00 A.M.

See photos

The fact is that by 10:30 P.M. all the aid stations were being torn down, apparently so that the race directorship could say it had disavowed itself of supporting anyone who came out and ran unofficially and, thereby, avoid any liability. Despite this, hundreds of people DID run the course. Thousands went out and ran something just to get a run in. I did 13 miles and my companions did 18 and 20 miles on the very roads the course would have been going through.

Later that day we went to the House of the Blues where the “post-race” party, which wasn’t cancelled, was being held. Absurdly, as we were walking in the door, there was a table where one could pick up a marathon medal. Sorry, I don’t accept medals for doing my long runs.

It is said that once something acquires bad publicity, it becomes near impossible to shake it. I know that I will always have a negative opinion of Myrtle Beach now. The race organization is mulling over what to do. Complete refunds aren’t an option. But it’s obvious to me it should offer free entry in one of its future events. I’d even be willing to stipulate that if I went, I wouldn’t take all the swag. They could save their money on that. Because right now, I’ve got a tech shirt, a cap, an aluminum bottle and a bag – all associated with the Race That Wasn’t. I won’t wear or use this stuff. I may have paid for it, but I didn’t earn it.

Banquet reservations and 2010 dues requested
AWARDS BANQUET, February 27 at the Dupont Country Club. See here for details: http://www.pcvrc.com/eventlistitem.php?id=33. Don’t delay.

If you haven’t paid your 2010 dues yet, it can be done when you sign up for the banquet. Or you may send dues separately care of PCVRC, P.O. box 3259, Wilmington, DE 19804.

Not yet signed up for Caesar Rodney?
Anyone not yet signed up for Caesar Rodney Half (3/21) is welcome to join our teams (consisting of club members, Rebel Runners, and possibly others) to represent Delaware in the Team competition. You don’t have to be speedy! This can give you discounted registration fee of $35-40 instead of the $50 fee as of 3/1. If interested or questions, contact Ray asap at . Info is at http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/page2.jsp?id=2774

Facebook group grows…Administrator needed
For those who haven?t received an invite, we?ve created a ?Group? on Facebook. Facebook members should visit http://tinyurl.com/pcvrc to join. A link will be on the home page of http://www.pcvrc.com This group will complement our website by allowing people to interact with each other about races, carpooling to events, finding running partners, sharing photos and sharing comments on our running activities. Hopefully new people will want to join the club. If you?d like to be one of our administrators for the page, contact Webmaster Ray at . Already 93 people have signed on.

Ralph McKinney daily running streak
Joe DeRosa shares some calculations about Ralph McKinney’s running streak. while some of us may question the wisdom of it, there is no doubt that it is remarkable:

At age 65, my fellow runner, Ralph McKinney, of Wilmington, De. will be closing in on running at least 5 miles every day for 24 years. Yes, that means:

24 years
8,766 days
43,830 miles
83,758,000 steps
93 pairs of running shoes

Imagine, this is only his minimal daily running accomplishment. Ralph ” squeezes in ” 5K’s through marathons . This is done regardless of being sore, sick, tired, having business or family obligations, and inclement weather.
Ralph is listed 72nd in the informal ranking of runners running at least one mile every day. As of now, there is no official listing of runners running at least 5 miles every day. I would imagine it would be a very short list.

New member welcome
The club welcomes new member Joanne Hennessy Slawter, owner of ?Massage For Athletes? in Zingo?s shopping center. She offers a 10% discount on her services to all club members. See www.MassageForAthletes.com Joanne and her husband live in Bear.