From President James Kirby:


Dear Fellow Roadrunners,

 I would like to start this festive message by saying that I hope you have had and will have a great, happy and relaxing holiday. I hope that you also found some time to run and enjoy the outdoors.

Scott has been a great servant to the club and the community over the last few years as the President of the club and I know that you will all join me in thanking him for those tireless efforts. Thank you all also, for voting me into office, I know I wasn’t up against the strongest slate but it is the first position that I have been voted into (except being voted “taking out the trash” executive in the Kirby household, and that was a tied vote decided by the dog!) and I hope that I can add some value to our club and our running.

We have a lot going on within the club this year, a new website launch, new social media initiatives, a strong race calendar and a number of blue ribbon events in the area including the Boomtown Run half Marathon and the Mother Road Marathon. In conjunction with this impetus I wanted to start the New Year by restating our Mission Statement and it is as follows:

A community organization dedicated to a healthy lifestyle through running, biking, and swimming.  We seek fun, fellowship and friendly competition.

I also mentioned at our December meeting that I wanted us all to think about some goals, both personally and as a club. We all want to put in some good running this year but do we want to set goals individually and as a club to:

·         run a PR

·         run more races

·         run more as a club together

·         race together as a club

·         support local races as a club

·         grow as a club donate more to charity? Some food for thought.

As I mentioned above Audie has done some sterling work on the website and as part of this I thought it might be good to put up some club member bio’s, achievements or interesting stories. I will be printing out a form for us all to fill out (only if you are comfortable) for Audie to use.  Audie will also take some photos.

Hope to see you out there running.

Best,

James     

From Newsletter Editor Mark Plucinski:

                                                           Running On…
     I’m sitting in front of my computer after starring in the remake of Walt Disney’s “Incredible Journey”. You remember that one. Two dogs and a cat get left behind when a family moves and the three of them travel together on foot across the country in search of their owners.

     The incredible journey that Karen and I just completed took us from Joplin to our condo in Bend, Oregon (Dec. 18-23), Bend to Pittsburgh, PA to visit my family for Christmas (Dec. 24-26) and back to Joplin today (Dec. 27). Of course, tomorrow Karen gets to extend all of the fun by taking 13 students on a Biomes trip to the Sonoran desert for nine days (driving this time – at least no security lines and no extra baggage check fees).

     This month’s little tirade is not a tirade at all, but more just an effort on my part to replay a really terrific run I had while in Bend by way of recounting it to you.

     Just outside the back door of the condo is a nature trail that snakes down a steep hill and on to the Deschutes River Trail, one of the primo hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails in Central Oregon. I had the opportunity to run on it three times in the five days we were there, but the 10 miler in the middle (the shortest of the three runs) for me was the most memorable. We had run 12 together on the trail the previous day, and with the warmer weather that Oregon had been experiencing, the trail was a bit sloppy (which is like saying that Rush Limbaugh is a bit on the conservative side). The next day, Karen decided to forego the trail for the roads, so I struck out for the woods again. The temperature had dropped overnight, and the quagmire was now quite runnable. Sweet!

      The trail winds along the Deschutes River, which transforms itself several times along the way from a slow moving, gentle stream to a series of rapids to waterfalls and back to gentle again. The canyon that the trail runs along is filled with ponderosa pine and aspen trees and manzanita bushes. It snakes along the river, climbing up and down the hillsides, in and out of rock and lava formations and across high desert meadows.

      It was just after 7:30 when I began my run, not long after the sun appeared on the horizon. The shafts of light were still at a low angle, and as a result when I ran through the wooded portions it played to me like one of those original home movies, where you can almost see every frame flash across the screen. Light, then dark, then light again in milliseconds. Beautiful, definitely scenic, and just a little bit on the annoying side. The river flowed past, upstream on the way out, downstream on the way back. Mallard ducks floated in the gentle sections, and in the rapids my minds eye pictured us in a raft sometime next summer. There were tracks galore on the fresh snow that had fallen overnight (just a dusting) and from appearances the hares and felines (bobcats?) got an earlier start than I did. 
  
      When I turned around at about 8:15, the sunlight was beginning to warm the exposed areas. The snow was beginning to disappear although the footing was still fine. The shaded, pine needle portions were sweet to run on, soft and smooth. 
 
      Getting close to the finish, the trail passes a popular rafting section called “Big Eddy”. I glanced across the river to Lava Island. A great blue heron looked back, smiled, and said “Have a great day!”
 
       I already was…

See You On the Trails!

Mark

Check out the following articles written by JRR runners on races they have recently completed and other ponderings.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (with apologies to Clint Eastwood) The Good.doc

Joplin Roadrunner Mark Plucinski's View of the Little Rock Marathon:                     
A Little Rock and Roll.pdf)

JRR Earl White's take on the Brew to Brew Ultra Run and the Sylamore 50k:                    Brew to Brew.pdf      Sylamore 50k.pdf         
                  

A report on the 3 Days of Syllamo 93 mile run:                                                                3 Days.pdf

Turn Turn Turn (with apologies to Bob Dylan) Turn.pdf

Glass City Marathon 1999 or How I Met My Wife by Mark Plucinski Glass City 1999.pdf

Fargo? YOU BETCHA!  Fargo.doc