Runners,

It has been a while since I have sent out an email. I hope everyone is continuing to run even in the cold, windy days. Running on cold days can certainly motivate you to run a lot faster!!

Again I want to Thank everyone that came to the Run in The New Year. It was so nice to see people we don’t see on a regular basis. This is such an Awesome social event for the year and I am so happy you all enjoyed it. The Hilton Garden Inn does a terrific job.

Well sometimes you aren’t aware of it but the Board of the WRRC is constantly busy trying to improve and bring about new and interesting improvements. For example, during the website discussion in January, we discussed the new movement to use mobile technology (IPhones) in addition to the website on your computer. We realize most runners will use both but we want to keep current and make the website mobile friendly. We need to use all of our available resources since the trend is to seek information from more than one source. We want to use our Facebook page to promote the weekly runs, races that are scheduled on the website calendar, to hook up runners or for question and answers. We are trying to make all information available to you in as many forms as possible within our capabilities. If you have suggestions, you can email any of us or contact us on the website.

Circular Logic Marathon

The next event for WRRC will be the Circular Logic Marathon on March 23rd. Joe Ely is the Race Director and has done an amazing job of putting this Marathon together. This Marathon is a totally Green Marathon, meaning there is no trash, specifically paper cups!! The runners bring their own bottles and they are labeled with their numbers and refilled by the water stop volunteers. This is a very smart idea in a world of recycling and environmental control.

The Marathon has a limit of 105 Runners and 21 Marathon Relay teams.

Here are some fun facts about this year’s race.  We have 114 individual marathoners from 18 states and Canada.

  • Runners will be here from Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, California and all the Midwest states.
  • We have 22 marathon relay teams, with over 100 individuals on these teams.
  • We have runners from 16 to 76 years old.
  • We have an Olympian participating!!  Benji Durden from Boulder, Colorado placed 2nd in the US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1980.  He placed third in the Boston Marathon in 1983.  Benji and his wife Amie are both running.
  • We have a world record holder back with us again!!  Larry Macon of San Antonio, Texas is back again.  Larry set the world record for the most official marathons run in a calendar year by running 157 in 2012, which included the CLM!  Last weekend, Larry finished his 1,000th lifetime marathon at the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth.  Larry will proudly wear bib 157.
  • Last year’s men’s winner, Bryce Carlson, is back to defend his title.  Bryce will wear the coveted bib #314, which we will doctor to read 3.14, the perfect mathematical constant for a race in a circle.
  • All our marathoners will have their names on their front and back, so you can greet them personally.  All marathon relay teams will have their clever team names on their bibs.
  • All the marathoners have given us a “fun fact” about themselves, which will have at the water stop…this will trigger fun comments each time around!

Joe is looking for volunteers for several tasks at the Marathon, this is your chance to give back to the Community and other runners that have given us so much. Plus it is really interesting to attend an event that is contained all in a one mile area.

We still need about 7 more volunteers for the water table, 3 more for to count laps,  a couple of particularly friendly folks who can show up early to be in both parking lots to direct runners in and one person with a pick up who can help us haul the water tables to and from the race course.

We also need a place to sleep for one runner flying in from New England. She’s running in honor of her late husband, an Air Force officer who was killed in action in Afghanistan about two years ago. She will be taking Lafayette Limo here from Indy but we need someone who can pick her up, let her stay, get her to the race and then back to the Shuttle. It would be a great gift of hospitality to a neat lady!

If you can volunteer at the race please let Joe know by emailing him at joeely618@gmail.com. There is also a sign up sheet on the WRRC website (VOLUNTEER HERE). We would appreciate any time you could give to this.

There will be a blog about the CLM by Sara Erikson at the Home of Purdue on March 20 if anyone wants to check it out.  Also a story will appear in the Journal and Courier to cover this Marathon and some of the fun facts and runners views.  Watch for this in the future.

Farmers Market 5K

Coming in the spring we will have our Farmer’s Market 5K Series that is becoming a popular event. This is an excellent way to do speedwork! The dates for this will be:

  • May 15th
  • June 19th
  • July 17th
  • Aug 21st
  • Sept 18th
  • Oct 16th

This is a series of Races that are held the third Wednesday of every month in Cumberland Park at Cumberland and Salisbury in West Lafayette at 6:30PM. There will be awards and pizza at the last race of the season. The awards are given based on your best three times of the series – therefore you must run at least three of the races to qualify for an award. There will be awards for each age category: Masters and Overall. There are runners of all levels of fitness so please do not be intimidated to join this race.

NEW TRAIL RUNS!!!

We are also planning four new events for this summer. We are planning a new series of races that will be unique for WRRC and we are very excited about them because they are trail runs and the number of trail races available around Lafayette are limited. We will have three training Trail runs, the dates for these races are:

  • June 5
  • July 3
  • July 31

These three races will be 5K/8K/12K (in that order)and this will lead into the 10 Mile River Race –that we have tentatively set for August 10th. There will be more details on this race at a later date.

For the three training Trail runs the distances and the routes are already planned. They will start from Ft Quiatenon, behind the block building at 6:30pm. Each race is about 4 weeks apart. The course is an out and back with a combination paved path and unpaved trail. The 10 Mile River Race will also start at Ft Quiatenon so these training runs will be helpful in preparing the runners for this race. The best feature of a trail run in August is that it is always cooler in the trees!!

Since one of the races is scheduled close to July 4th, we will try to tie it in to the holiday. Should be lots of fun!

WRRC has so much to offer the area runners. Let’s get the word out there!

Thank you everyone for your support and enthusiasm!!

Cyndi Meacham