Agnes bakes an awesome cake to help Cruisers celebrate the 50th and 75th birthdays of Christina and Bobteoc. Despite the hard run and yucky weather, the Cruisers turned out in force to have lunch at the Cactus Club. Bob & Christina also received Matrimonial Cake and Pumpkin Pie, respectively, to partake of at home. Bob will be proudly sporting his new Bud pants today and – did you think this would ever happen? – Laurie and Edie will be dressed just like him – thanks to their gift from Bob in kind!
Monday: Eight Cruisers: Carla, RA Edie, Lora, Val, Alex, Rod, Shiraz and Bobtoc ran from the Centre Monday 6:30 pm to Broadway and Underhill then continued north to Forest Grove Drive, then east to the Gaglardi overpass then to the Beaverbrooks to return to the Centre; distance 8.5 k, time 52 minutes, enjoying the easy run. The eight enjoyed a warm temperature and NO RAIN, a sharp contrast to the cold, rain and sleet experienced by our many friends on H2H relay teams on Sunday. Len Soet said he has never experienced such bad weather for the H2H, but said Rick Davidson experienced the sleet this year. Our walkers Lynn and Al tapered at home, resting before their first half marathon Sunday. Their distance and time Saturday am , 12 k, time 1:50.
The Fall Classic: Sixteen Cruisers and “franchise” Cruisers, i.e., our friends from the Poco Running Room, participated in the three races Sunday November 15 in surprisingly good weather; fairly mild temperature, and very little precip until the running of the Full 5 km (RA Edie’s term). Results follow. The races were capped by a bruncheon at the Cactus Club on the Lougheed Highway, attended by 30 Cruisers and franchise Cruisers, husbands or wives (our athletic supporters). It was pleasing to see such a turnout after the last scheduled runs for 2009. It was particularly pleasing to see Sharon Kelly, who took time out of her busy days as the caregiver to her mother, not many weeks after the passing of her dear husband Rob. I mention her because she is the Cruiser who brought in Sun Run Clinic grads or leaders Barry Jones, Christina, Edie, Flora, Jennel, Chris and Rod. These folks gave numbers and energy to the then small group and the numbers have increased since then with experienced runners and walkers coming into the fold. My personal thanks to Sharon, and to Edie, Christina and Rod for their leadership. Edie is a genius at organizing, also poetry as we have found out in recent days and weeks (who would have known without Budweiser), her art work and her attention to the bulletin board. Christina has arranged most of our apres race luncheons and has introduced into our group runners from the Poco area who in turn have brought energy and enthusiasm to scheduled runs and lsd runs in the Langley or Poco areas. As I told Christina Sunday, I am glad she moved! Rod introduced us to the Kelowna Okanagan Marathon runs where we have enjoyed several seasons. Flora has introduced a few of the Maui group to the dangers of credit cards and shopping two minutes before closing time. Ah, different people, different skill sets, all combining to give us happy runs and times. I would be remiss big-time if I did not thank Libby Covernton for her friendship through running for over 22 years. She keeps me in line with her schoolmarm demeanor and “yes dear” response which is a great put-down for me. A very special treat for us all was the attendance of Jennel and Tony and daughter Anamaria, now walking, destined to be a volleyball player.
I was the recipient of many cards and gifts including a tin of Budlime, an album assembled by Edie who must have spent hours and hours and hours obtaining photos, excerpts from Sharon’s running diary, Edie’s poetry, stuff going back over 20 years to the former Forest Grove Running Club, which album brought back many memories. I have to regard the album as belonging to the Cruisers, held by me in trust, since so much of our activities are encapsulate in the album. Gi-Nyun’s wife Agnes baked a beautifully decorated three tier birthday cake; top layer lemon-filling, second mocha, and third chocolate. The cake was exquisitely decorated, a true work of art. I thank Agnes sincerely for her many hours needed to produce such a cake. Gifts of royal blue Budweiser lounging pants were made to our self-named Budweiser princesses RA Edie and Laurie, still suffering from delusions of pseudo-royal grandeur. So sad. My official 75th birthday Monday was very quiet after the excitement of the Sunday half marathon, the other FC races, and the memorable bruncheon afterward. My humble thanks to all who participated in the runs and the apres run/walk bruncheon.
Fall Classic Results:
Half Marathon:
Stormin’ Norman 1:40:01
Rick Davidson 1:52:05
Larry Kuhn 2:07:48
Debra Nicol 2:01:15
Rod Hargreaves 2:10:57
Christina Saremba 2:20:25
Ken Blowey 2:20:41
Bob Kuhn 2:40:18
Lynn Field 2:50:48
Al Field 2:50:50
10 K:
Alex Lau 52:25
Ruby Ferguson 53:20
Tanya Jones 53:49
Niel Ferguson 1:0020
Full 5 K:
Laurie Hilborn 32.23, 8th of 91 in age group (Would’ve been faster if she hadn’t waited for RA)
Edie Kernighan 34.00