Race Report

Great organization, a good crowd of more than 75 runners and walkers, delicious food, cold temperature but sunny conditions, and smiley faces.... all of these were present in the 2009 edition of the Steam Whistle 12K. Thanks to all organizers and volunteers for a work very well done. For many Latin-American people a morning New Year's Day run is a difficult task to do. Generally, we have a super-yummy-dinner after midnight to welcome the New Year, get some adult drinks and then dance salsa and merengue for a couple of minutes -- Anyway, we, Latin-American runners, "sacrified" ourselves this time and went for the Steam Whistle race early morning. I am glad I saw Ginny Dufrene right before the race. She can run 100 miles at once and at a steady pace, so I decided to join her running gang for the 12K. Jim Coll, Kim Ryder, Kily Garcia, and Christie Stricker were in the pack too. This is the first time in my life I managed to pace myself in a run. We stayed together for the first 6.5 miles and then tested our legs in the last mile. 13-years old Christie and Jim were the strongest runners at the end. We all finished the race between 56 and 58 minutes. I did it in 56:50 and was lucky enough to place second in my age group. A guy named Terry The Hammer Lawhead (have you heard of him? ) was the overall winner while Kayla Stricker won the women race. © Pijume Diwesi Report by Ginny Dufrene --> Thurs. - Steam Whistle race. Needed to get 14 miles today so I started with 1.5 miles warm-up, ran the 12k in 57:27, and then ran 5 miles after the race to get my 14 for the day. This was my first experience with running in a pack of runners. Kily, Raul, and I started out together. After we had been running for a little while, we picked up Christie, Kim, and Jim. Christie is a 7th grader and is already amazing. From what I hear, the running family is amazing. I had planned to run 7:50 - 7:55 pace. I ended up running 7:48 pace. I started falling off the pack pace at 6 miles. 7:42, 7:41, 7:50, 7:52, 7:43, 7:47, 7:57, 2:51. I felt really strong today, loved the cold weather. I appreciated the support of running in a pack, what a fun race. Thanks to all of the race volunteers who worked hard to put this race together. Thanks Tony for keeping the race going. Report by Dwan Smith --> I felt good today in the race, and I ran as hard as i could. The problem was it was about 3 minutes slower than last year. I am definitely not as strong as I was a year ago. I ran 1:02 and averaged 8:28. It was a great day, beautiful weather, and a good turn out for the race. Considering how tired i've been and how much I didn't want to get out of bed, I'm definitely glad I went. 11 miles total. A great way to start a new year! Race Results