G’Day, 

For those 11 runners who decided not to turn up, sorry, but you missed a magic morning in Blue Jay. The first race for the 08 series saw a lot of new faces including many who had never run on a trail before. The weather was the best, we got lucky after all the inches of rain during the week before, and we are very lucky rain doesn’t affect the trails in that area too much.  But my friends after many, many years of being an RD it had to happen, some di**heads decided to change the course markings. Some runners ran a couple of extra miles, but luckily we managed to handle the situation. Most ran the 12K without knowing there had been a problem. What do ye do!

Of course this affected the finishing times for at least the first 20 or so runners, so for those who care about the official time being in print … I will back up your excuse!  Sorry.

I did decide to go with the finish times for the awards and because we attract nice people no one complained, let’s hope this virus doesn’t happen again. I will work on it. 24 year-old Brian McDermott won the last race of the 07 series and was first across the line on Saturday. Brian said: he spent some time at Sugar Loaf helping redirect runners and was sorry for the ones in front, he is a good man. By the way his time was about 25 minutes slower than his time in 07. First timer Cliff Clarmont was 12 minutes back followed by Jim Heller. Jenny Fritzche was the first woman, closely followed by Shannon Waegner and Julie Mullican. All were happy to receive their awards as was the age group runners, good to see the young ones out there. 16 year-old Kevin Woyjeck enjoyed his run as did me ole mate Leon Gray, only 62. The youngest runner on race day was Maia Richards-Dinger, age 9; she will be showing her cuts and bruises at school. First timer Jean Pontac was all smiles receiving her award in the !! division; she was more excited about beating her old man Tom. Again, I am sorry for many of the racers that got in some extra miles, don’t take me to court, please.

You seemed to enjoy my gourmet delight at the finish line, didn’t leave much for me! The raffle was a happening, glad a lot of folks got something, must thank Fleet Feet of Laguna Niguel, Crank Sports for the E-Gel and Bob at Snails Pace. Must mention me new mate big Kevin; he supplied the hot coffee at the start and the Starbuck samples. Unfortunately his SUV will smell of his product for a week or so after spilling some on his way to the start.  Both he and his lovely wife Scarlet enjoyed their run.  Must thank Bill and Cass for their support and Joe Woyjeck for his help at the finish line.

Without good mates it would be real hard, so thank you all who helped me. I did enjoy meeting lots of newbies to our trails and I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks for the 15K.  As you know we are limited to the numbers of runners, so if you want to run please enter early to get your spot.  Glad you liked the race-shirts; don’t forget 2 races or more you get one.  For those who complete all four races you get a nice embroidered sweat shirt, they will be handed out at the 21K. Signing up on line is ok, but I still need the official entry form filled out in pen. I try to entertain as well as be an RD, you can tell I enjoy myself, I just hope you do. Hopefully those who tried to sabotage the race think twice the next time, we have eyes and ears everywhere in the community. Sorry if the results have problems, it was a tough day, we will try harder next time. Don’t forget we are nearly at our 150 maximum entrants, so please send in your entries ASAP.

Full run results are still being tabulated. A web link will be sent to you shortly for easy viewing; and bragging rights.

See you on the 9th of Feb. and keep training with a smile.

Love, BAZ