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Chris Lear to Headline Club Banquet

Club Members and Guests:

1. Banquet and Elections: Our Club's annual meeting and banquet will take place on Sunday, March 25th, at the Clarendon Grill in Arlington, starting at 4:00 pm. As promised, we have a very exciting speaker: Chris Lear, author of "Running With the Buffaloes" and "Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile." Chris is a native of New Jersey, and ran at both The Pingry School and Princeton University, where he was a teammate of All-American Scott Anderson, a regular participant in the Club's Wednesday night workouts.

Thanks to Lana Leung for securing our reservation at the Clarendon Grill. And thanks to the others who have stepped forward to volunteer.

But more volunteers are still needed. Please contact president@dcroadrunners.org if you can help.

2. Annual Awards: In order to make this as transparent a process as possible, please submit nominations no later than March 10th for annual awards in the following categories: Outstanding Runners (both male and female categories); Most Improved Runners (M and F); Outstanding Masters Runner (M and F); Volunteer of the Year (just one).

Please, do not hesitate to nominate yourself! It is a difficult task to sift through the accomplishments of our hundreds of active members to make these selections.

Nominations can be sent to the "president" email address posted above.

3. Annual Election: A proposed slate of candidates for the various Club offices and the Board will be posted here no later than March 11th. If you would like to be considered, or know of someone who would serve well in one of these capacities, please let us know.

4. 10K Training Program: Over 40 runners showed up on Saturday for the start of the 2007 10K program. Congrats to all of you for braving the chilly weather. Although bad weather might be in the forecast this weekend, eventually things will get nicer -- and the program is still open for new participants! Our "goal" race is the Capitol Hill 10K in May -- so there is still plenty of time to get in shape. Please contact program coordinator Peter Lamberton if you are interested in joining the group as a coach or as a runner. plamberton@yahoo.com

5. 25K Race: Congrats also to the more than 100 runners who braved truly difficult conditions at last Saturday's Belle Haven 25K. And thanks to the numerous volunteers who made this race possible, particularly race director John Haubert. Full results are now posted.

Our next race is the Burke Lake 12K on Sunday, March 11th, directed by Club Treasurer George Getek.

6. New Club Benefit: RacePacket. By now, some of you may have received in the mail a copy of the latest RacePacket. This is a new benefit for Club Members. RacePacket will now include a two-page Club Newsletter (look for it just before the results pages toward the back of the magazine).

Look for RacePacket in your mailbox six times a year.

7. Club Challenge 10-Miler: As we all know, this event was cancelled due to snow. The Board will consider several options to make this race more attractive to DCRRC participantsin future years, including avoiding a scheduling conflict with one of our own races that weekend, and perhaps allowing participants to score Snowball Series points.

8. Henry Heymann, RIP: Several Club members have written to note the passing, on February 8, of longtme DCRRC member Henry Heymann. Henry, a graduate of Princeton University, World War II veteran, and career Foreign Service Officer in the State Department, started running at age 50, and continued well into his 80s. Searching the web, I found several letters of Henry to the alumni magazine of his beloved alma mater. Henry was a man of great intelligence and commitment both in service to his country and to his many interests, such as conservation.

Ed

25K; Race10K Training; 10M Challenge Needs Runners

Club Members and Guests:

A busy weekend as we soon head into the spring racing season!

1. The Club needs runners for the annual Maryland 10-Mile Club Championship, 8:00 am Sunday, February 25th, at Howard County Community College. More info can be found at http://www.striders.net/races/rrca/index.php . For the online registration the password is cDsm55 for DCRRC (and is case-sensitive, so it needs to typed exactly as shown). Site is www.racetrakonline.com and should be pretty self-explanatory. The website does not always seem to be fully functioning so it might take more than one try or jsut registering at the race on Sunday. Also, please contact team coordinator Aaron Cheskis by email if you plan to run: aaron.cheskis@gmail.com

The Club pays the entry fee for this race!

2. 10K Training Program: The 10K Training Program will commence on Saturday, February 24, at 9:00 am. See more details under the "Programs" button to your left. Meeting point is the Lincoln Memorial. The program is under the direction of long-time training program volunteer Peter Lamberton. Peter can be reached at plamberton@yahoo.com Please contact Peter if you would like to volunteer as an assistant coach, or even if you would like to participate as a trainee. Our "goal" race this year will be in May -- the Capitol Hill Classic 10K. Please tell your friends about this program -- a great way to jump start spring fitness training, with a definite goal!

3. Belle Haven 25K: This annual fixture in the Snowball Series will take place Saturday, February 24th, at 9:00 am. Check the button to the left for further details.

4. George Washington Birthday Marathon: What a privilege it was to be out there last Sunday in Greenbelt and see so many volunteers help out the 200-plus runners who participated in the marathon and marathon relay. Weather is always chancy for this event, but this was clearly one of the tougher years we have had recently -- the wind was particularly bad on the back side of the loop, and no picnic on the final hill either. I'll have some more detailed thanks to add in a later post, but this was truly a team effort.

Let's make it a goal for 2008 to increase participation at this event! We are looking for ideas to make that happen, which could include making the marathon, and perhaps even the relay, qualifying events in the Snowball Series. As difficult a challenge as this race can be, it is one of America's oldest marathons (this was the 46th running). We had plenty of volunteer support this year -- so let's continue to build on that success.

Major thanks, of course, to race director Pat Brown for all he did to make this possible.

5. "No Headphones" Policy: A reminder that in conformity with a long-standing policy of the Road Runners Club of America, no headphones are allowed in DCRRC-sponsored races. For those with questions on this policy, see the rather lengthy discussion in the "Forum" section of this website that took place last summer/fall. If you show up to race with headphones, you will be asked to remove them on pain of disqualification from the event. Thanks for your cooperation.

6. National Marathon/Half-Marathon: DCRRC is now an official club sponsor of the National Marathon and Half-Marathon (March 24, 2007), along with the other major running clubs in the area. Please, when you enter the Marathon or the Half, indicate your DCRRC Membership so that we are credited with "referring" you to the race. Race director Keith Dowling has asked me to pass on that the Half-Marathon is not merely an "add-on" to this event; rather, this is truly a "double feature" with the Half-Marathon providing an excellent tune-up for those running in Boston on April 16th.

7. Banquet and Elections: I cannot reveal the name yet, but we are close to having a VERY exciting speaker for the banquet this year. But we need volunteers to support this event! Volunteers are needed for the following: (a) To help coordinate the Annual Banquet. This means contacting the site (usually Clarendon Grill) and making the necessary reservations and other arrangements. If you can help with this, please contact the Club President. (b) Nominating Committee: One or two Club Members (in addition to members who will be nominated from the Board) are needed to serve on the Nominating Committee to create a slate of candidates for next year's officers. Also contact the Club President on this.

Ed