"I took the scenic route."
Due to Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon (JSRM) being cancelled this year, AREC decided to put on its own relay marathon. About 35 people had signed up in advance to run, plus a number of people who just wanted to hang out. Since JSRM has always been about charity, we decided to donate whatever we collected above our food and beer costs to the Hirshberg Foundation (which supports Pancreatic Cancer Research) in memory of Heather Stevens. Prior to the run, we coordinated a number of details: Tam Premsrirath, Margaret Everitt and Roberta Bonifacio coordinated the food, Kim Garman offered the use of her house and backyard (near to El Dorado Park), and I dealt with sign-ups, the course, and beer. On Saturday afternoon, I met with Tawnya Johnson, and we marked the course with chalk and some pink surveyor’s tape (I borrowed a GPS from Win Freeman to have accurate miles, but couldn’t get a signal and made my best guess.)
On Sunday morning, we congregated at Kim’s house around 9am. Probably a dozen of the people who were coming hadn’t arrived, even by 9:15, so we made our way to the start, hoping that they would show up eventually. Bernard, Bob Filacchione, Tammy Strong, Laura, Margaret and Tam set off quickly, before I could determine whether we had enough people for 6 teams (unless people were running multiple legs, we DIDN’T).
But since I had about 30 minutes to arrange everything, we decided to make teams of 4, which would enable us to finish running a little earlier. About 20 minutes into the relay, another 3 people showed up, and we ended up forming a 7th team of people who ran their legs whenever they felt like it. In lieu of batons, someone had thoughtfully brought beef jerky sticks. So coupled with the shortened distance, we dubbed this event – Slim Jimmy Stewart.
The teams were somewhat evenly matched – some of the last minute shuffling had put some faster friends together (Laura, Chuck, and Todd Fanady), but all the teams finished within 30 minutes of each other.
We got a little drizzle, but that didn’t erase any of the marks (whew!). The only real case of someone getting lost was on Leg 3, when Tammy Roether and Michelle Cooper left about the same time. Michelle did a U-turn around the fence (as marked) and Tammy wondered where she’d disappeared to (kidnapped?), forgetting to follow the chalk, so she turned up somewhat later than expected.
"I took the scenic route."
After finishing, Kristin Deatherage forced one or more of the anchor legs to eat their jerky sticks before heading back over to Kim’s for a BBQ, with salads, chips, hamburgers, grilled chicken, veggie patties, cookies, and lots of beer. I was mildly disappointed how little beer was consumed (average was 1.5 bottles per person), especially after Jaime Ybarra drank 7 beers last year before his leg (and ran a Personal Best!).
The consensus by many of those there was that we should have another similar event (pay in advance so we can make up solid teams) perhaps later in the year, start/finish the course at Kim’s house and make a day of it, because everyone had a really good time. In the end, AREC will be able to contribute $300 toward Pancreatic Cancer Research. If you would like to make a contribution, see Tam. A check to the Hirshberg Foundation would enable you to get a tax deduction and do something nice in memory of Heather Stevens.
Emmett hands out maps.