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When it comes to cold weather, runners not afraid to take plunge
By JOE SHAFRAN
I want to commend every one of the thousands of people who did the charity plunge last weekend at Sandy Point State Park. I hereby invite all of them to become runners if they aren’t already. I say to them that running in near-freezing temperatures would be much easier than running into the water. I have often been asked why I don’t indulge in this event and I always say that I decided long ago not to submit my body, which has gotten me through countless marathons, to further torture by going into frigid water. Just to reassure myself however, I did stick my finger in the water and was reassured that 38 degrees is just too cold for these bones.
As for running in cold weather, most of us get bundled up, but there’s the fellow they call “speedo man” who does early morning runs bare chested through Annapolis in any season, wearing only swim trunks and shoes. And you may well have caught a glimpse of my neighbor, Jon Line, in this cold weather as he runs Bestgate Rd. in his swim trunks, except in absolute below-freezing temperatures when we see he puts on a long sleeve tee, a stocking cap and gloves. Jon manages the Gotta Run store downtown. Then there’s another good runner and the other afternoon, when I stopped by the Fleet Feet store over the Spa Creek bridge in Eastport to see what was going on, Scott Broerman was just about to hit the streets for a run, also on a cold winter day. Those plungers do it for just seconds, but Line and Broerman and others are out there in the cold for a couple of hours.
And cold weather seems to be the best time to have training classes for future runs in milder weather. Evan Thomas and his Strider group have distance running classes going this time of the year and he is now reminding of the Striders beginning running classes kicking off April 26th. Ron Bowman has classes going for marathons, mostly at the Truman Park and Ride lot. As for further training, the Striders on their new website announce a Moore’s Marines training session, headed by Bob Cawood that begins at 7 A.M. July 12th at Jonas Green State Park at the north end of the Naval Academy Bridge, preparing for both the Baltimore Marathon on Oct. 11th or the Marine Marathon on October 26th.
And coming up on Saturday, Feb. 9th, which is still supposed to be in the deep freeze, is the Striders’ Valentine’s Day 5K at Kinder Farm Park. It is the first race of eight in the Striders 2008 Club Championship Series. For information, take a look at the new www.annapolisstriders.org.
This year as in the past couple of years, Susan Noble, a good runner in her own right, and whose title is Children’s Race Director for the Striders, has her Children’s Championship Series at that Kinder Farm run on Feb. 9th and has scheduled the hundred yard dash for “the little guys” and a 1K for “older participants” up to age 12. On that one you go to www.active.com to register and for more information, e-mail Noble at noble26@comcast.net.
And Joel Sachs of Annapolis reminds about the Team in Training (TNT) kick-off Saturday morning at 8:30 at the Hard Rock Café in Baltimore to train for runs in May and June. They have the Frederick Marathon in May and end up with the Midnight Sun event in “the last frontier”, Anchorage, Alaska at the end of June. Reach Sach, the prime local TNT booster, at joel.sachs@alum.mit.edu.
Looking back at the finish of the Anniversary Run at Quiet Waters Park in December, it was interesting to see people with the same last name finishing together. There were Jennifer Heisterman, 42, at 1:25:33, and neck and neck was Jessie Heisterman, 19, at 1:25:41. Also there were Peter Salmon-Cox , 68, finishing number 286 at 1:43:02 and number 288 was Sarah Salmon-Cox, 37, at 1:45:38. And of course, not in this race but most all others, are the Walsers, father and son, late forties for the father and twenty something for the son.
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Tip of the week: Washing your running shoes. There seems to be two schools of thought. One is to just throw them in a washer, first removing the insole. The other is to do a hand wash with a scrub brush. And one other thing - using a hair dryer to dry out shoes after a long run helps to leave a pleasant aroma.
Race of the Week: The Strider’s Valentine’s Race on Saturday, Feb 9th. It sort of kicks off another season of running around here. It’s at Kinder Farm Park off Jumpers Hole Road, close by Severna Park and Pasadena.
Runner of the Week: Susan Noble of the Striders. In addition to being a good runner, Susan has taken on the job of getting the little kids interested in running and seemingly having great success. This year again, just as there is the championship series for the adults, there will be the same for the kids, starting at the Feb.9th Valentine’s Run at Kinder Farm Park.
Race Results
Female finishers at the Anniversary Run, December 9th at Quiet Waters Park , Annapolis . 312. finishers:...
10. Caroline White, 22, 58:26, 32. Anna Bernall.19, 1:02.10 34. Sheryl Kline,44, 1:02: 14.38. Amy Alexander, 21, 1:03:30. 44. Amanda Beal, 27, 1:04:29. 49. Margie Boyd, 40, 1:05:41. 50.Suzanne Furr,46. 1:08:04. 68. Candice Dickson,18, 1:08:48. 69. Holly Marcum, 41, 1:08:49 72. Ann Bradley, 30, 1:09:42.83. Elisa Velarde, 40, 1:11:46.88. Brooke Walsh, 29, 1:12:01. 91. Claudia Ducker, 39, 1:12:34. 95. Christine Hinton, 36, 1:12:58.96. Maria Shields, 56, 1:13:09.
Running Calendar
Sat. Feb. 9th, 10:A.M. Valentine 5K (1st leg of the Annapolis Strider’s championship series) Kinder Farm Park, Severna Park, 26th year. visit www.annapolisstriders.org.
Sun. Mar. 2, 7:30.A.M. B&A Trail Marathon & Half Marathon…
Meet at Severna Park High School. www.annapolisstriders.org .
It’s the 17th year for the marathon and the 13th for the half.
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If you have a suggestion for the runner of the week,
please e-mail me with a contact number.
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