All the hard work put in by the training group finally came to fruition – 57 members of AREC participated in the full marathon, half marathon or 5K.
The Friday before, nearly that same number attended our Pasta and Awards Party. Great fun was had by all, even though the awards were presented after some people had already left. You can read about the majority of the winners in the September 2005 newsletter, but Special Awards were presented to Bernard Dean Mills and Deb Cardinale for helping out with the Training Group, David Duckman, an award for his commitment to supporting our Sunday running group, and Todd Rose, a special signed certificate (by the training group) for his dedication to the training group, week in and week out.
Then, the Runners of the Year Awards were presented to Todd Rose and Heather Stevens.
At the conclusion, gift certificates were presented to the primary coordinators of the event, Margaret Everitt and Colleen Shea. Special thanks also goes out to Tam Premsrirath, Bernard Dean Mills, Nelson Arnstein, James Trousil, and Don Carkeek.
On Sunday, I positioned myself at Mile 20.1, with the LB Hash House Harriers. My intent was to run a portion of the marathon with anyone I knew. Chuck Sohaskey came by first, and I ran a brisk mile with him. Then, I progressed a half mile back and picked up another run. This process continued for well over 3 hours.
I estimated that I ran 18-20 miles myself (without venturing further than Miles 20-22.5!) and I was able to run with 22 different AREC members.
Here are some further accounts of AREC Runners:
Linda Lazarus – My favorite parts were: Seeing and hearing the beautiful rainbow lorikeets behind the Aquarium of the Pacific; and having all you wonderful AREC folks cheering us onall through the race. Bernard was the best!
Todd Rose – Don’t always mindlessly trust your watch. If you don’t know what I’m talking about… just ask me.
Training A Success
For those of you who have recently joined AREC, you would know little of our struggle to become the awesome club we are today.
Three years ago, we entered into a partnership with Long Beach Marathon to be the “Official Training Club.” Our first ‘official’ training group had 1 half marathon runner (that I ran with on Wednesdays).
Our second group had a number of runners at the start but only 6 went on to finish the program.
This year, we had 56 participants, 36 of which participated to some extent, in the training program.
The best part is that I believe that most (or ALL) of you will continue to run with AREC, and perhaps pass on your skills when we start the marathon training again in May 2006.