Michigan Running News, December 29, 2010

Volume 10, Number 15

Photo Š John Brabbs, runmichigan.com

December 29, 2010

3,400 runners and walkers came to the Run Thru Hall on Halloween for Dolores and Harrison Hensley.

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Quote of the Week

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New Year's Eve Resolution Run Has Moved from Flint to Flushing

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Top Michigan Running Stories of 2010

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Desi Davila, Tom Chorny and Colin Leak Among Elite in Midnight Run, NYC

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What was your favorite race of 2010?

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Running Network's Mr. Ubiquitous in California and Nevada

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Race Calendar - December 2010

To subscribe, please visit http://lyris.dundee.net/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=michiganrunningnews Michigan Runner magazine Editor: Scott Sullivan Michigan Running News Editor: Jennie McCafferty =============== Quote of the Week =============== We're having fun here; it's what we do.

-- Caleb Zylstra, age 2, Christmas Day ================================================== New Year's Eve Resolution Run Has Moved from Flint to Flushing ================================================== From Riverbend Striders: "Due to circumstances beyond our control, the New Year's Resolution Run & Walk on December 31, 2010 has been moved from Downtown Flint to Flushing, MI. The race will start at 2:30 PM at the Flushing Senior High School, 5039 Deland Rd., with race registration and packet pickup beginning at 1:00 PM." In an interview on National Public Radio, John Gault said Flint didn't have enough police available to close roads. The Flushing location will not close major roads. ============================= Top Michigan Running Stories of 2010 ============================= 1.

Run Thru Hell on Halloween. Chuck Block quickly organized this race to raise money to buy a van for Dolores and Harrison Hensley. More than 3400 runners came.

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Paul Aufdemberge Wins 4 national titles and sets an 10,000m record on the track.

Masters Championships: 1. Half Marathon in Melbourne, Florida (Melbourne & Beaches Half Marathon) 2. 25K in Grand Rapids (Fifth Third River Bank Run) 3. 10 Miles in Flint (Crim) 4. 15K in Buffalo (Fleet Feet 15K) 45-49 age group record: 1.

Hillsdale "Gina" Relays, April 23, 2010, 10,000m run.

See Paul's record run at Hillsdale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK48w8RmFpE

3. Desi Davila runs 2:26:10 at the Chicago Marathon in Chicago heat; she is currently the top qualifier for the 2012 Olympic Trials.

4. 5 Michigan high school runners competed in the Footlocker Cross Country Championships: Gabi Anzalone, Brook Handler, Erin Finn, Shannon Osika and Caleb Rhynard.

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5. More people run major races: Among the events which attraced more runners in 2010 were Fifth Third River Bank Run (22,435 in 25K, 10K & 5K) Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon (3,264 in marathon and half) Detroit Free Press Marathon (17,069 in marathon, half, 5K, relay) Fifth Third Turkey Trot in Detroit (12,853 in 10K, 5K) 6. Dathan Ritzenhein Wins USA Cross Country Championship & Tracy Lokken Wins Masters, Spokane, WA, 2/13/10 7. Women win races overall; these three beat all the guys and all the women: Dot McMahan, Riverview Winterfest, 4 mile run, 22:25, 2/14/10 Angela Matthews, Memorial Day 5K Run, Grosse Ile, 17:30, 5/31/10 Gabi Anzalone, Crim 8 Mile, 29:13, 8/28/10 8.

Grand Valley State Women Win D2 Cross Country Championship Katherine McCarthy led the Grand Valley State University Women to the D2, Cross Country Championship, Louisville, Kentucky, December 4.

9. Katie McGregor is USATF Distance Runner of the Year Ohio native and University of Michigan graduate won three national championships to claim USATF's Distance Runner of the Year: 15K, Gate River Run, Jacksonville, Florida, March 13, 49:51 25K, Fifth Third River Bank Run, Grand Rapids, May 8, 1:26:24 10 Mile, Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile, Minneapolis, Oct. 3, 54:21 10.

Dexter Ann Arbor Run Hosts USATF Masters 10K Championship http://michiganrunner.tv/2010dexter_annarbor/

========================================================== Desi Davila, Tom Chorny and Colin Leak Among Elite in Midnight Run, NYC ========================================================== The Emerald Nuts Midnight Run in New York City has announced its elite field. Among them are three Michigan runners: Desi Davila, Rochester, Michigan Tom Chorny, Indianapolis, formerly of Fruitport, Michigan Colin Leak, Ann Arbor. ============================= What was your favorite race of 2010? ============================= Dorothy Johnston's favorite was her first time running the Boston Marathon. Mine was running the Tiger Trot 5K in Lakeland, Florida where the race course was the World War II Runway on which my Father-in-Law, Herschel McCafferty trained pilots.

Let us know: What was your favorite race of 2010?

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============================================================================ Running Network's Mr. Ubiquitous - CHULA VISTA & SAN DIEGO, CA; DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, NV (Dec. 14-22, 2010) ============================================================================ Mr. Ubiquitous, aka Gary Morgan, reports: "As I continued my trip last week in Southern California, I went to Chula Vista, which is 15 miles south of San Diego and is the home of the US Olympic Training Center. It's one of four Olympic Training centers in the USA. The other three are Lake Placid, New York, Colorado Springs, Colorado and Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. These centers let athletes train full time while providing them with housing, food, AND athletic facilities at no cost. Plus there are a lot of training camps where athletes train for a week at a time with coaches and trainers. I did that a few times in my athletic career.

The last time I was in Chula Vista was back in 2004 when we had our 50K race walk Olympic Trials in the city. What a world of change. BMX racing has taken over the training center. There was one track in use and another one was being built. Plus the visitor center had become a BMX Hall of Fame building. This is a new sport in the Olympics and I was surprised to see that much money being put into that sport. I talked to the security guard and he said on weekends there would be hundreds of spectators watching the races. The other sports for which athletes train there are rowing, road cycling, track, archery, soccer, triathlon, and some others that I don't know about. It's a great place to train year round there for the athletes and the Center has served the Olympic movement very well over the last 15 years.

That afternoon I visited Old Town San Diego. It's where San Diego started in the late 1800's and it's on a hill over looking the bay. There's a state park called Old Town and it has some of the original buildings. Many are craft shops and restaurants. The Victorian homes built in that era are being used as Bed and breakfast operations. It looked like it would be pretty cool to stay at one of those places for a night. It's the first time I had been to that part of San Diego after all these years and it was really interesting to see how San Diego started. There's lot's things to see and do here plus some great parks like Balboa Park and races to run in. There's never a shortage of options here in San Diego.

On my drive back to Las Vegas I took a side trip up to Death Valley National Park. It's a 125 mile drive off the main highway to the park entrance. As I drove to the park there wasn't much along the way but that's to be expected out in the desert. A couple of very small towns but the scenery was cool. The mountains and the cactus's made for an interesting contrast. I finally get to Death Valley and a few miles into the park theres a sign for twenty mule team canyon. I didn't go into the canyon but I remember Borax-- a cleaning solution when I was growing up with twenty mule team being on it.

So this is where they got Borax from. As I drove into the Valley there was Furnace Inn which had an Oasis with Palm trees there. This fantastic Inn is open during the winter months and has a great view of the valley floor. I drove over to the visitor center and got a map of the park so I knew where to see all the good stuff there. The Furnace Creek ranch has camping spots, hotel, grocery store and post office. All the things that tourist like to have when they leave the city. I guess they call it Furnace Creek is because it's hot like Furnace in the summer. The hottest temperature ever recorded here was 134 degrees in 1913. At this time of year is awesome. It was sunny and 70 while I was there.

From here I went to Bad Water which is the lowest point in the park and western Hemisphere. At 282 feet below sea level, it's low, low, low!!!! A sign up on the rocks says, "Sea level." Whats really cool here is that you can walk out on the salt flats and it's completely flat with salt crystals all around. Just a few miles away there was Telescope peak at over 11,000 feet high, the high point in the park with snow on it. What a contrast.

As a runner whats really fantastic about this place is that it is the starting point for the Bad Water To Mt Whitney 135 mile running race. It's the lowest point in the USA to the highest point in the continental USA. It's a grueling event that attracts world wide attention. Maybe I'll put it on my Bucket list. As

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the sun started to set I headed for Vegas and then the midnight flight to New York City. The adventure continues.

-- Happy Holidays to everyone, Gary Morgan ========================== Race Calendar - December 2010 ========================== FRIDAY, December 31, 2010 * Fifth Third New Years Eve Family Fun Run/Walk, Detroit, 3:30 pm, Belle Isle Park, 5KR/W, 1MR/W, http://belleislefunrun.com/ ******* Calendar entries are a value-added service for Michigan Runner clients. Please contact Art McCafferty (artmccaf@sbcglobal.net) if you're interested.

--------------------------------------------------------*Michigan Running News is published weekly. Please feel free to pass this email on to anyone you think might be interested. * To reply, please send email to jennie@glsp.com. * To unsubscribe, please send email to leave-23206900-64315194G@lyris.dundee.net Jennie McCafferty, Online Editor, Michigan Runner Michigan Runner Archives: Michigan Running News - http://michiganrunner.net/news/ Michigan Runner Magazine - http://michiganrunner.com/#pastissues Michigan Runner Television - http://michiganrunner.tv/archives.

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