In This Issue
• Bold in The Cold
• Upcoming RAW Annual Awards Banquet
• A Double Racing Feat
• Inspiration from a Young Runner
• Volunteers Needed for Chase Corporate Challenge
• Hound Dog Hustle Flyer
Upcoming Events
March 10: 8:00 Run with the North Texas Trail Runners
2:00 Wine Chaser Fun Run
March 24: Year End Banquet
April 28: Hound Dog Hustle
May: Annual Camping Trip (Date TBA)
June: Club BBQ and Elections (Date TBA)
Mix Master “First Friday Nite Out” (formerly Friday Night Happy Hour)
• March 2, 6:30 pm at Saltgrass Steakhouse
• April 6, 6:30 pm at Embassy Suites Sports Bar
• May 4, 6:30 pm at Esparza’s Downton
• June 1, 6:30 pm at Don Pablo’s
Renewals
Your membership expiration date is shown on your Footprint mailing label. When it’s time to renew, just fill out the membership application in the newsletter, and mail it back to RAW along with your check.
The Perfect Recipe for Bold In The Cold: Krispy Kremes, Hot Chocolate, and 25o
This year the 3rd Annual Bold In The Cold 5k and 15k lived up to its name. My sister, Laura, happened to be visiting from Portland and of course I had roped her into volunteering. She said it sounded like great fun! She had no idea what lay in store for her. At 4:30 a.m. I stumbled upstairs to wake her and as I was walking out of her room I said “You may want to put on some extra clothes, it’s 22 degrees outside.” We left the house looking like polar bears – the layered look was definitely in order. Laura was given the job of making the hot chocolate and coffee, and believe me the warm drinks were needed.
By 5:30 the clubhouse was a hive of activity as we prepared for the race. Volunteers were holding matches to the outside hose trying to thaw it so we could get water for our water stops, others were setting up tables for registration (strategically placed in front of our two heaters) and yet another crew was driving the race course putting out directional signs, flour (to mark the turns) and mile markers. The temp was 25 degrees… are we having fun yet?
The runners started arriving at 7:00, registered for the race, grabbed a hot drink (Continued on page 2)
Our crack registration team of Judy Dominiec, Lisa Noell, and Johanna Bush
A happy youngster enjoys those treats while he waits for the race to end!
5K Males
Now That Was a Long Day!
On a beautiful cold January morning (January 20), I set out to do what I had never done before – run two races in one day. The day was set to begin at Lake Grapevine with the Bold In The Cold 15K at 8:00 a.m. Then I would continue with a short two-hour road trip to Waco for the Waco Striders’ Cross Country Challenge five-miler in Cameron Park. Some may believe that I was out of my mind to consider this, but the reasons were simple. First, I had never run an official race with the LGRAW club, and second, the Cross Country Challenge is really a neat run that I had enjoyed once before.
John Bush shared in the excitement, as he also knows what fun the Waco run is. So the plan was set. I would run the Grapevine 15K while John
worked the race, and then we would jump in his car and make the trek to Waco for a 1:00 p.m. race start. My desire was simple - I didn’t want to miss either of these races.
If there is one thing I remember about running the 15K, it would be how incredibly cold it seemed that morning, although the day was absolutely beautiful and had attracted a good crowd for the race. I think the temperature was about 22 degrees at race start. In the early stage of the 15K, my fingers and toes were frozen, but by the third mile, I had warmed up nicely. My plan was to enjoy the run, and to not push myself too hard as I knew that I would want to reserve some energy for the Waco run a few hours later. I felt great until I was into my fifth mile, when I began to feel the effects of the
cold. My legs just didn’t seem to want to continue. I began to slow somewhat, and as Lee Miller can attest, in mile five he began to close on me. At the six-mile mark, he passed me as though I was standing still. Despite my struggles, I stuck with the run and finished with a personal best. I was pleased, although I wondered what my time might have been if my run had been better.
After a short intermission and time to catch my breath, I located John and tore him away from his directoral duties with the race. His dedication in completing his assigned tasks at the end of the morning had me concerned that we would really have to make up for lost time during the drive south. We hopped in his car and began the
(Continued on page 6)
Two Big Events Slated for March 10th!
First: Run with the North Texas Trail Runners
When: March 10th at 8:00 am
Where: Meet at the “Biker Lot” near Little Pete's on the Northshore Trail of Lake Grapevine
Directions: Take Dove Rd. to Northwest Hwy./Bus. 114 east to 26 east to 2499 north. Turn left onto 3040/Flower Mound Rd. Make first left onto McKamy Creek. Follow to end and turn left on Simmons. Turn right at stop sign (at Murrell Park), proceed .8 miles, and turn right at "Fishing Trail #7" sign. Go straight and park in lot near trail and small pavilion on right. We'll meet the North Texas Trail Runners at the pavilion.
Second: Run, Walk, and Imbibe at the Wine Chaser (the run/walk is optional!)
When: March 10th at 2:00 pm
Where: RAW Clubhouse
What to do: Bring a bottle of your favorite wine or an appetizer to share. The club will provide wine glasses and bread. For More Information: E-mail John
drive to Waco. He was calmer about getting to the race than I could ever have been. We arrived safely with a half hour to spare!
For some reason, the weather for the January race day in Waco always seems to be great. That’s all right with me because if it wasn’t, I can’t imagine what the run through the wilderness might be like with rain or snow falling. Speaking of snow, I was told that during the week before, Waco had received some snow and as a result, course conditions were muddy on the flat areas and at the bottom of the down slopes. This run was definitely going to be interesting!
After a briefing from the Cameron Park rangers on course conditions, the group was off and running! The run begins by heading downhill to the Brazos River where the course remains flat for most of the first mile (although I remembered that the steep slope down would be the same steep slope up that we would finish on). As I made my way toward the river and began to settle into my pace, I realized that this run would truly be a personal challenge for me, as I had little remaining after the morning run in Grapevine.
Once I reached the first uphill climb, I didn’t think about my lack of energy again as it was time to concentrate on getting up the rocky surface ahead without falling, twisting an ankle, or scraping my face on low branches. There are several good climbs throughout the run, and by the time I had reached the second uphill ascent, I was practically down to a crawl. My legs were burning and my breath was short. The reward for getting through the hills is the ability to run on a flat portion of the course or even downhill in the
next section, although moving downhill also requires one to be alert for rocks and twigs on the trail, or low branches. Plus, there were those muddy spots usually found at the bottom of the trail. During the run one also has to pay attention to course markings, which are indicated by ribbons tied on tree branches.
So, through the woods, over hills and valleys, trekking mud and tossing twigs, I continued my run, eyeing the trail ahead while enjoying the scenery. I was surprised when I reached the end of the wooded area, as I had been so engrossed in the run that I didn’t realize it was already time to double back toward the finish. The time had passed quickly! Even when I began the final climb to the finish on the same surface where we had begun the race, I reflected on all the fun I had had during the day. I wondered when I would do something crazy like this again!
—Jon Korte
RAW to Publish Phone Directory
In response to members’ requests, we will be publishing a RAW phonebook. Inclusion is entirely optional, and the books will be distributed only to those who wish to participate. No one’s number will be listed without their permission. Twenty-one members signed up in February, and the cut-off is March 31st. If you wish to be listed, you may sign up at the clubhouse, or send an email to Jason Priakos at jpriakos@ix.netcom.com THANK
First Friday Nite Out
RAW gets together socially at 6:30 on the first Friday of each month. Don’t miss these opportunities to get to know one another in a non-running/walking setting. The pictures below were taken in January at La Hacienda and in February at Red Robin. The next get-together will be April 6th at the Embassy Suites Sports Bar. See you there!
If you’ve enjoyed the water service on weekend workouts, then ask yourself if you’ve taken your turn yet this year. Sign up with Joe Luccioni, or if you’re new, offer to ride along with someone who is signed up on the bulletin board in the clubhouse. You’ll catch on quickly!
Need Some Inspiration?
The following letter was written by a young man named Tom Yax, who lives in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He is seventeen years old, and a senior in high school. He wrote the following letter to accompany his college applications:
Academically, I am very proud of my accomplishments. I am proud to be enrolled at Oakland University for my second year of calculus. I am proud to have scored excellent on two Advanced Placement exams. I am proud to have maintained a 3.8 Grade Point Average throughout my high school career despite a ferocious schedule. And I am very proud to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist. But because academics have always come easy to me, I have never really gained a sense of fulfillment by performing well in my studies. I did not really feel inner satisfaction because I have never had to make any major sacrifices to succeed in school. However, during the spring of my sophomore year, a friendly challenge ended up forcing me to make more sacrifices than I could take.
I have always participated in athletics, but have never really excelled at any of them. Sophomore year, I earned my first varsity letter in wrestling, largely by a stroke of luck. It felt great to wear my varsity jacket to school and have people know I was a varsity wrestler. At the same time though, I knew my heart was not really in the sport. Performance in wrestling depended too much on talent, and I knew my lack thereof would always be a limiting factor. Anyway, shortly after wrestling season ended, one of my wrestling buddies mentioned our school’s track and cross country teams. He was talking about how much they would help us build up endurance and stay in shape for wrestling. And not being the stellar wrestler, I figured I would need just about every edge I could get.
I showed up for track practice the following day. I expected to be among the fastest runners, having just finished an intense wrestling season. Unfortunately, quite the opposite was true. I finished most every run, warm-ups and workouts alike, as one of the last few stragglers. After three weeks of struggling in the back of the pack, our first meet rolled around; I recorded a dead last finish in the 2-mile. It came as a horrible shock for me to be the worst athlete on the field. This was a terrible blow to my self-esteem, and for the rest of the season I did not put in a single hard day of training. I also stopped running the 2-mile at meets. My track experience plummeted downhill afterwards. When the season was just about over and our team was meeting for its final practice, my coach was giving a final end-of-the-year speech. I stopped joking with my fellow slackers long enough to hear a fragment of his speech “...no one has the natural ability to run a mile in four minutes. This isn’t a sport where you lose because someone was born better than you. The winners in our sport are only winners because they run with more heart.”
For some reason, those few lines clicked with me. They were like a challenge—daring me to do what I thought was impossible. As I watched our top athletes perform in the County Meet, I could think of nothing else but that speech. I thought about it all that night as well. I thought about it all throughout school the next day until I finally asked myself, “I really can’t do any better than this?” That day, which was the day after track season had ended, I laced up my shoes as soon as I got home from school. I ran every day after that for 87 days, until cross-country season the next year. At time trials, I ran the 2-mile for the first time since track season. I ran it 3 minutes and 12 seconds faster than I ever had before and scored a place on our varsity squad. Now, another year later, I am captain of our cross-country team, doing everything I can to lead my team to the state finals. Ever since that day sophomore year, I motivate myself by asking, in running as well as in life, “Is this the best that I can do?”
