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It was a beautiful day for the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon and 50K. Alas, it was the week before that sucked - thereby turning a day with perfect temps into a horror of ice, mud, and water. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Here are some pictures taken at the 21.5/25.5 mile aid station, aka Tofutown. PS: If you know the names of people that I've failed to identify or misspelled, please send corrections to don@libes.com. Thanks! |
| The temperature: around 50F with no wind in sight. Quite a change from last year's ice-cold blowfest. Here we gather for a quick pic, prior to the onslaught of the expected 175+ runners. | 
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| I missed a photo of the leader, Mickey Stepek, as he ran "around" me! As best we can reconstruct, he left the official course (shown in green) turning right at a fork (red) instead of left.
To people familiar with the course, it may seem straight but the path jogs a bit at that spot (exaggerated on the map) so you end up at a tee and have to make a choice. He probably followed the border of the field and thereby bypassed the aid station. His family (waiting at the station) went racing after him to call him back - and he did, adding yet more mileage. Whew!
By the way, his longest distance prior to this was 13.1 miles at last year's Riley's Rumble! (He's either following the Lance Armstrong method of marathon training - or he just can't afford to pay more than $10 per race. Can you blame him? He's only 17!) |
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| Eric Makovsky provides the opportunity to finally take a picture of a runner! |  | |
| We are pleased to find runners are wearing clothes that coordinate with our aid station! |  | |
| Our first big smile of the day from Courtney Campbell! |  | |
| The club's own Steve Smith chugs in, looking like he's enjoying a morning stroll. |  | |
| Behind the scenes, it is an all-girl operation. Exquisitely-efficient PB&J producers! By the end of the race, we would go through 3 lbs of bread, 2 lbs of turkey and cheese, plus several jars of peanut butter and jelly. Admittedly, the girls ate their share. |
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| Despite the delectable offerings, Paul Rades feels no need to stop. (Or maybe he just didn't want his picture taken?) |  | |
| After finishing up her parking detail, Kimberly Price arrives to do some serious cheering. Graham Anderson arrives from the wrong direction, running the course from the finish line back to the start - not sure if he realizes this. I guess parking at the end instead of the beginning confuses people? Anyway, they stand still long enough that I figure they need their picture taken. |  | |
| He doesn't understand why I want to photograph him from behind, but the amount of mud spreading all the way up his legs has to be seen to be believed. |  | |
| Showing a little blood on the knee. First of many. |  | |
| Serge Arbona almost doesn't want to stop! (Running the photographer over is not recommended.) |  | |
| Those sandwiches are looking pretty tempting, eh? |  |
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| Eugene Gignac arrives unaware of run aware. |
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| Mark Hoon shows off an ample number of scratches. Don't see them? Just keep staring. |  | |
| Ouch! |  | |
| Bob Price doesn't appear to be enjoying the race as much as Kimberly. |  | |
| To help with the ice, Mike Roth is wearing home-made screw shoes. |  |
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| Heading straight for the carbs! |  | |
| The temp swings noticeably throughout the day. Here, Bob puts on another layer and is good to go. |  | |
| Ted Diss grabs the entire 2.5 lb bag of M&Ms! Thankfully, there are still some left when he gives it back before leaving. |  | |
| Tim Morgan (in yellow) looking pretty banged up will go on to finish first 1st in his age group. But Bob is having serious trouble tearing himself away from our hospitality. |  | |
| Tim Mossman starts the clock for the women marathoners as Pat Zerfas arrives so we can tell others who ask exactly how impossible it is to catch up to her. Pat looks so good, we know right away no one will catch her. Note lack of mud on her legs. Even her shoes and socks look clean. She must float over the trail! |  | |
| After checking in, Steve Ritter gets permission to check out the libations. |  | |
| Don't worry, I'm sure those leg wounds will heal in a few weeks! |  | |
| Packing some nourishment to go, Steve adds a couple pounds to make the race more fun. |  | |
| Medical supplies, toothbrush, change for parking meter, ...., gee Steve, better get going already! |  | |
| Amy Sproston arrives, her hair following closely behind. |  | |
| Bryon Powell finds the good stuff. PS: Peeps are the secret to all great 'thoners. But they have to be freshly made. (Like within the last 3 or 4 years.) |
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| See? People really do eat them. Another guy comes by and stuffs two in his mouth at once. No chewing, just one quick swallow and he is on his way! |  | |
| Steve Core arrives - so far, only the second person with tights (and common sense). When there's not too much action, we start paying attention to the little things. |  | |
| Steve tries to decide who to listen to - does Tim or his 8-year old daughter know more about junk food? |  | |
| Greg Zaruba and Claude Courbois dig in to the sandwiches. (Claude is the one sweating; how unusual, eh?) |  | |
| Dane Rauschenberg bleeds all over our immaculate dining area. |  | |
| Christopher Hamley ambles in, creatively covering up any cuts with a combo moisturizer-concealer base of mud with another layer of, well, mud. L'Oreal pay attention. |  | |
| Meanwhile, apparent gunshot victim Dane continues bleeding. PS: His race report is not to be missed. |
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| Keith Moore appears carnage-free. (With no special moments, we wonder how he will possibly remember the race afterward.) |  | |
| We're always on the lookout for people in mental distress - like this possible candidate. |  | |
| Fred Dolan looking good. Until ... |
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| Ouch! |  | |
| Mark Crimson arrives looking for a good jolt of caffeine to carry him home. |  | |
| Hooray for Mountain Dew - #1 in caffeine! |  | |
| Pete Pontzer shoots us back a pretty good smile. |  | |
| Mark Wessel heads for the tofu. |  | |
| Barnaby Nygren asks Gee, are those girl scout cookies on the table!? |  | |
| Trevor Myers on his way to personally bonding with Mother Earth at least 5 times today. |  | |
| Lindley McGrew shows his layers. |  | |
| Mark Prescott arrives with tofu on his mind. |  | |
| Jeff Branin is looking great, ultimately finishing 2nd in his age group. |  | |
| Giovanna Tosato flashes a huge smile despite fears of a broken hand from earlier falls. |  | |
| Richard Demedici keeping warm and showing relatively little mud and few scratches! |  | |
| Green Peeps? What is the world coming to?! |  |
Please send corrections to don@libes.com.