Our newest mini cruisers make an entrance. Congratulations to the proud parents, Shiraz and Nabila!

Ten Cruisers warmly welcomed Alice Miro to the group Monday evening. Alice knows Chris from SFU days who advised her of the Cruisers. The eleven, being Alice, Sayeeda, Sharon, Rod, Larry, Bobtoc, Alex, RA Edie, Flora, Rachel ran and Ross walked the Stoney Creek trail to North Road, with Edie and Flora then retracing their steps to meet Ross, the others continuing south on North Road to Jefferson, east to Tyndall, south crossing Como Lake Road to meet Clarke and North Roads, into Sullivan Heights, onto Noel Drive to Beaverbrook and return to the Centre; time 33 minutes only. The eleven enjoyed warm temperatures and an EZ run. The group encountered Damien who brought parents Valerie and Rich along Beaverbrook with his stroller to meet and greet the Cruisers. Damien is eight months old, obviously doing well.


Wednesday’s

report courtesy of Chris Keeling , my thanks!
Libby and I ran tonight. (Ed. note: must be Bruins fans?) Our run started under very heavy rain but the downpour dissipated before even getting onto Beaverbrook, for a pleasant run in light to no rain along Sears route, up Underhill and through Forest Grove, returning via the overpass and Stoney Creek School. A pleasant evening run. Time out 51 min, 6.8 km. I got back home before anyone even scored.


Five Cruisers turned out for the Saturday run and divided into two groups: Rene’, Norman and Verna whose goal was to run approx one hour, 10 or so, km to the IGA corner and return. I did not see them enroute; they may have turned up Shellmont Drive on the return leg. Larry and Bobtoc also ran west, Larry to the Burnaby North Secondary School and re

turn, time 1:44, and Bobtoc, to the track at the school, took one lap there befure returning, distance for both approx 15 km, Bobtoc’s time 2:19 after deducting for a pit stop. The five enjoyed gorgeous w

eather, sun, comfortable temperature, the best morning of the year.
On Sunday eight runn

ers including Sayeeda Hudani ran the inaugural Whistler Half Marathon, starting at 7:30 am. Edie provided a commentary on the weekend, reproduced below, followed by the stats:

“Angela and Alex kindly hosted dinner on Friday night with their friends Jim and Que so John, Christina, Laurie and I enjoyed our carb load at their condo. We had a lovely afternoon checking out Whistler and eating ice cream from Cows.
Cruisers participated in another wonderful half. The weather was perfect for running and the route had spectacular views

. The first 7k was extremely hilly and overall it was a hard course. I was the la

st of our group to come in and there are no results posted so don’t know the times, but Christina, Alex, Laurie, Rod and I all finished. Rod was run in by Allison and Matthew( his grandchildren) and has pictures. Christina, Laurie and I had to get back to our hotel room for check out time so didn’t see everyone at the end but had our picture taken first by the Olympic rings. The four of us had lunch then tried to go to the Awards Ceremony but were late because service was slow and it was jammed so we didn’t get any door prize tickets. We met up with Alex an

d Angela there and some of us enjoyed another Cows ice cream, before parting ways. Christina and John offered Laurie and I a ride home and we were very grateful. I hurt all over and my legs are still sore this morning.


The run is sure to be a quick sell out next year as it was well organized, easy to get to the start and finish line and a challenging route.
—
Edie”

Official statistics:
721 finishers!
Alex Lau 2:12:22
Helen Merenghi 2:18:48
Karen Stevens 2:18:48
Christina Saremba 2:19:07
Laurie Hilborn 2:28:50
Rod Hargreaves 2:37:47
Edie Kernighan 2:42:11
No stats for Sayeeda.

The Great Walk 63:5

km Gold River to Tahsis;

This year Rick Davidson set a record for runners from our TELUS morning running group doing the course in 7:47, Debbie Colvin who has now done 8 Great Walks, keeps getting faster every year finishing it in 8:03. We had a couple of new people join us this year, Angela Tseu

ng 9:03 and Judy Potter 12:11. Times are approximate, and just going from my poor memory, as I they haven’t posted the official times yet. Here are some pictures.

Rick Davidson 7:47

Debbie Colvin 8:02

Shirley Sywak 9:03

Angela Tseung 9:03

Len Soet 11:33

Judy Potter 12:11

Leslie Zenger 14:44

Miriam Soet 14:44

I found it tough th

is year, and was about two hours slower than in 2007. I checked my training log and discovered that I did a marathon in February, 2007 and also did more weekend long runs of up to 33 km in preparation. Miriam & Shirley also found it harder this year than last time as they also didn’t do as many long training walk/runs.

On the positive side, this was the first time that I used a hydration pack and I found that it worked really well. I was also able to eat a couple of handfuls of food at each aid station without any difficulty. I found the course very scenic and we had great aid stations. I also had a good start, starting nice and slow.

Amazingly Rick and Leslie did not have sore legs the next day.

Rick said that he saw a bear and Miriam and Leslie also saw the same? bear later. Miriam said, I can fight it off with my walking poles if necessary but Leslie wanted a vehicle escort past the bear, which they got. Miriam and Leslie also saw cougar scat and our bus driver said that he saw a cougar on the way up.