Friday, January 29, 2010

Lets Show Some Love

With an effort to show some love and contribute to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund the Wednesday Morning Running Club is holding a raffle for a beautiful hand crafted heart shaped jewelry box by local artist and ultra runner Jeff Jones. A great gift idea for Valentine’s Day. Raffle tickets are only $5.00 each and you can get as many as you want. 100% of proceeds go directly to Red Cross Haiti relief fund.

Everyone is encouraged to get in on the raffle even if you live out of town or don’t make all the Wednesday runs. Pledges can be made to ductility@juno.com or at a Wednesday Morning run. The drawing will be held February 10th after the Wednesday morning run. You don’t have to be present to win. The Jewelry Box will be mailed in the event the winner lives out of town. Good luck to all and god bless.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Directions: Cave Creek Trail Marathon "Fun Run" 1/31 SUNDAY 7:30 AM

Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area is located approximately 35 miles north of central Phoenix. Interstate 17, State Route 51, and Loop 101 can all be used to reach the park. From the intersection of Carefree Highway and Cave Creek Road head north on Cave Creek Road about 2.5 miles to Spur Cross Road. Turn north for approximately 4.5 miles to the public parking area. After 3 miles the road turns to all-weather graded. The last 1.5 miles can be confusing; continue north on the graded road past the green house, through the tall gateposts and on past the horse corrals to the signed public parking area on the right. Additional information here: Cave Creek Trail Marathon

Monday, January 25, 2010

Tonto Marathon Taper run 1/27

Hey all, looks like we are in for a 1:06 trail run in the Phx Mountain Preserve this Wed at 5:16am. Top lot of Sq Pk Dr. Be there.

The runner of the week is the entire AZ Wildcats BBall team. They ran the sun divas out of their own gym with a 77-58 beatdown. Nice job asu! Notice all the asu fans disguised as empty seats.

Jeff Jones has made a nice piece of art that we are going to raffle off and all the proceeds will be going to the red cross for the Haiti Earthquake Relief fund. Raffle tickets are $5 each and you can get as many as you want. Raffle will take place sometime before Valentines Day. Feb 14th? See attached photo for the beautiful jewelry box that JJ has made with his own 2 hands.

This weekend is Jody's Tonto-Cave Creek Trail Marathon. This is a must do for anyone with early season 50 milers. A great loop by Jody Chase, Thanks Jody, looking forward to puking my guts out there. It is Sunday am see below for info.

See you all Wed morning. Be on time or we will ditch you.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Rock & Roll Trail Recovery Run

Now that the silly road marathon has come and gone its time to get back to the trails. Seriously. Reminder: We are on for a group trail run in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve Wednesday Morning 5:17 AM Rain or Shine! Plan on a little over one hour at a slow to moderate pace. Meet at the very top of Squaw Peak Drive north of Lincoln / Glendale Ave. We've been meeting every Wednesday morning since early 2004 and I can only remember a couple times that it rained during the run. Even then it was sprinkling. With any luck we'll have a downpour this Wednesday. We need it. Be prepared. It will be fun!! Lots of fun seeing WMRC friends out on the marathon course. Runner of the week: Jason Klonoski is one of the most consistent WMRCers. Shows up to all Wednesday runs, joins the group on multiple hour trail runs, paced a good 20 miles as Western States 100 and now tackles the road marathon devil. Jason ran a great race with negative splits to finish in 3:45:50.
Also notable out there was David Westhoff (5223) and long time WMRCer Chris Harrison (1315). David has been running with the Wednesday crowd for the past year or so. I think this was David's first Marathon because he had "Westy's 1st Big One!" across his shirt. Both ran a 3:44:39 Congrats!!
Nick Coury is fast. No matter if its a 100 mile mountain race or a road marathon. Nick finished in 2:48:52. He ran so fast past me I couldn't get my camera out in time to take a photo. Thanks to Joe G. who found the above on the web.
Additional congrats go out to Marathon finishers Karen Bea and Matt Kraemer.
Marathon Pacers: That had to be one of the funniest things I noticed. First it was Robert Huotari and Sandra Fontaine pacing and holding up the 3:10 sign. They must have had 200 runners (the blob) surrounding them. Then I see Honey and Joe G. with a 3:45 sign with even a bigger blob of people. Honey seemed to be having fun because she was smiling and yelling at the crowd to join in. I almost did.
There was a Half Marathon to deal with also: Congrats to Laura Encinas who ran a 1:37:04 PR and Rebecca Gavigan for her 1:48:19. Another quick 1:19:27 for Chris Latvaaho. A special note to my Friend Skip Corely who was at my house watching the Cards football game Saturday and proved to everyone that having "just one more beer" is okay and you still can have a successful run.
Who else ran? Sorry I missed you! See you Wednesday Morning!!!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Running From an Angel 50 mile

Photo of Joe Galope at the halfway turnaround and on his way to an overall 4th place (1st masters) 7:42:40 running from an angel 50 miler. Great job Joe.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

WMRC Run Reminder for 1/13/10

Reminder: we are on for a group trail run in in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve Wednesday morning 5:16 AM. Plan on a little over one hour at a slow to moderate pace. Meet at the usual location at the very top parking lot of Squaw Peak Drive north of Glendale / Lincoln Drive. Plug in the following address into Google to get a map: 7200 E. Squaw Peak Drive, Phoenix, Arizona. The weather is great so lets keep training up for the upcoming race season. Runner of the Week: Congratulations to Joe Galope who finished 4th overall and 1st masters (didn't know he was that old) in the Running From an Angel 50 miler around Lake Mead. 7:42:40. Nice job Joe. Based on the photo above looks like a beautiful road course.

Good luck to those that are running / pacing PF Chang's Marathon Sunday. After that get back to the trails!!

Keep in mind the upcoming trail Runs: January 23rd McDowell Mountain Frenzy; January 31st Cave Creek Trail Marathon; February 6th Mt. Ord Fun Run.

GO CARDS!!!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Baby New Year Run 1/6/10

Its a New Year! Baby New Year is here and Father Time is pissed! Get Training! First Wednesday Run of 2010! Reminder: We are on for a group trail run in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve Wednesday morning 5:15 AM. Meet at the very top lot on Squaw Peak Drive in the Park north of Glendale Avenue. Plan on a little over one hour at a slow to moderate pace.

Runners of the Week are those that got the year off strong and ran the 22 mile Castle Hot Springs trail run. Nick finished first in 2:47:31 followed by a bunch of others Jon, Joe, Jody, Paulette, Aaron, Joanne, Debbie, Rachel, Liz, Laura... and so on. I'm sure I missed others on the list. Sorry.

Upcoming Runs: January 23rd McDowell Mountain Frenzy; January 31st Cave Creek Trail Marathon; February 6th Mt. Ord Fun Run.

Lastly: Here is the Year At A Glance Training Log Print out, post on the fridge, fill out the page!

Mt. Ord Fun Run 2/6/10

Feb 6, 2010 (Saturday) 8:00AM
Mt. Ord-parking area at mile marker 228.7

FREE- NO FEE- SUPPORTED- FUN RUN

Directions to trail: Slate Creek Trailhead: From Phoenix, take state highway 87 north to the bottom of Slate Creek Canyon (4.8 miles past the signed Mount Ord turnoff at the Maricopa/Gila County line). Turn right into a large pull off/parking area at milepost 228.7 at the bottom of Slate Creek Canyon.

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2458686

I'll park my truck at the Y (approximately 4.5, 10, 21, 26 mile) and set up a table with water, gatorade, food. I'll drop water off at mile 15.

Do whatever distance you're up to, 50k, 26, 16, 10 will pass the aid station so less for you to carry.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Laura Nagy (623-521-2866)

Friday, January 1, 2010

2010 Year At A Glance Training Log / Challenge

Happy New Year! Click here for The Year At A Glance Training Log. Print out, post on the fridge, and fill up the page! Keep the blank spaces to a minimum. To many blanks... you need to train more.

There are 52 Wednesdays in 2010. How many can show and run all of them? Challenge: Anyone who shows and runs all the WMRC Wednesday morning runs will get a performance WMRC running shirt at the end of the year (maybe at the end be healthy and fit also). The odds are against anyone doing it. Only those who show next week Wednesday January 6th 2010 are eligible. In case you are wondering: St Patrick's Day does fall on a Wednesday but Chritmass Doesn't:>)