Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Buffalo Chips Weekly News Update

Emerald Nuts Across the Bay 12 km

Brought to you by Linda Hall...

(Sunday, 19 March) We had an absolutely perfect day for Emerald Across the Bay 12 k which starts in Fort Baker, runs across the Golden Gate Bridge and ends near Fisherman's wharf. It was sunny and cool with just a hint of a breeze. The course has been modified slightly. They have eliminated a loop on the streets (which was always very hot) and replaced it with a loop and long stretch on the crushed gravel path along the water. Of course the hill up to the bridge was challenging as always, but the hill at the end didn't seem bad (guess those chips workouts at Rescue helped).

It was difficult to find the chips there because there were so many people running and also the three wave start. The folks I saw were:

Barbara Miller (age group first)
Rhonda Holden
Chris Wellins
Heather Bracken
Maggie Ward
Lindsay Pears-Dickson
Linda Hall

For the men, I saw:
Doug Braasch
Joel Contreras

Note: There have been scheduling changes in the PAUSATF grand prix road race calendar. The next race will be Zippy's 5 k on April 23. The HP 10 k in Cupertino is no longer on the schedule and I believe the date will be changed to some time in May. The next PAUSATF grand Prix series will be the Marin 10 on Memorial Day (Monday, May 29) . Please try to make it to both of these. We have been short on our teams this year.

National: LA Marathon….Sunday 19 March
New California State Marathon RECORDS for both MEN and WOMEN!

We think of the California International Marathon course as “fast,” but our new state 26.2 mile open records both come from the LA Marathon as of yesterday. The men’s time was a 2:08 and the women’s 2:25. Using a handicap start, the elite women got 16 minutes and some seconds lead, and while the open men closed in the last 2 miles the fast finishing top women produced a 5:17 last mile to hold the lead and break the tape first winning an extra $100,000 ! The men’s winner was not too poorly treated as he got a course record bonus which brought his payday up to over $60,000.

So the message, in part, is that fast times come just from a “neutral course” but also from TOP talent racing for big $$. The money at LA is bringing out the wolves and they know how to run !

Footnote: When prize money arrived at the Honolulu Marathon, the course record times there quickly dropped by 3-4 minutes for men and about 10+ minutes for women ! Money has a way of changing the character of who is on the starting line and it certainly motivates for who crosses the finish line in the top group.

Local CHIP NEWS....

The spinning of the Earth and the passage of the seasons continue and we are now officially in Spring, but this past month has seen the transition into “middle age” of two of our Chip female “racers.”

Departing the open group, Meg Svoboda and most recently, Carol Parise, are both now FORTY (40) years old ! Carol has been around the club workouts since she was about 21 years old and her biggest challenge in those early days was simply finishing 10 miles. Carol is now in the final prep stages for the American River 50 miler in early April. Happy Birthday to Meg and Carol and to all other Bison enjoying either a new orbit of the sun or one of those “age group” transitions as well.

COMING: April 1- AMERICAN RIVER 50 MILER

Chips Aid Station at Sunrise Bridge on Parkway ….please contact George Parrott to volunteer. We need 12-16 volunteers as the runners come through here in decent sized groups. This is at about the 15.3 mile point and thus our “service time” is from about 6:45 a.m. to 9-9:15 a.m. We were packed up and cleaned out last year by 10 a.m.

Contact: gparrott@csus.edu to volunteer. Don’t be shy!!!!

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