| |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Treasure Hunt 5K
18 Jan 03 - Berryville, VA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Australian Football League player profile of Leigh Brown |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| These links lead to pages outside of the SVR Web site, and are here just for fun. The club bears no responsibility for the content of the linked pages! |
|
|
|
 |
|
Who will win the Super Bowl?
| 1. | Philadelphia Eagles | 24 |
| 2. | Oakland Raiders | 18 |
| 3. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 10 |
| 4. | Tennessee Titans | 9 |
| 5. | other (unspecified) | 2 |
| 6. | ? | 1 |
| | Britney Spears | 1 |
| | Cincinnati Stingers | 1 |
| | could care less | 1 |
| | D.C. United | 1 |
| | Frito-Lay Greasers | 1 |
| | New York Yankees | 1 |
| | Pepsi commercials | 1 |
| | Pgh. Steelers (in '04) | 1 |
| | Washington Redskins | 1 |
| | who's playing? | 1 |
| x | no answer | 8 |
The Treasure Hunt 5K fell on the day before the AFC & NFC championship games, meaning that the Eagles, Raiders, Bucs, and Titans were still in contention at the time of the poll. The Buccaneers & Raiders moved on to Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, CA on Sunday 26 January, where the Buccaneers shocked the world with a 48-21 victory. |
|
|
|
|
|
Do you like running in the snow?
|
|
|
|
|
| | 
Awaiting the start
|
Thanks to more winter weather, this year's Treasure Hunt 5K ended up significantly different from previous Treasure Hunts. We had originally planned on following a two-loop course around the Clarke County Recreation Park fitness path, so as to avoid the rutted orchard land used in previous years. But a quick snowstorm rolled into the Shenandoah Valley on the Thursday before the race, covering the ground with maybe an inch and a half of snow. Thankfully the roads dried out on Friday, allowing us to hold the race as scheduled. But as race director Leigh Brown and your author stood in an inch of snow on the fitness path on the frightfully chilly morning of the race, we quickly decided to ditch our planned course and switch to an all-road route originally suggested by Neal Riemenschneider.
I grabbed the SVR's measuring wheel (and some thick, thick gloves!) and worked out the relatively easy out-and-back course, following Westwood Road south to Senseny Road and heading west for a little under half a mile to the turnaround. Miles one and three were basically flat, with the Senseny Road section having a couple of rolling hills. Most runners seemed to enjoy the course, giving it much better reviews than the last course devised by yours truly (the Kickoff Run 5K)! Some probably wouldn't have minded running in the snow on our original fitness path course, but we thought it was better not to run the risk of having people sliding all over the place in the snow. Heck, running in the 17° weather was enough of a challenge, wasn't it?
Along with our original course, another casualty of the snow was the "treasure card" game, where cards would be scattered along the course for runners to pick up and redeem for prizes after the race. Because runners would be sharing the new road course with automobile traffic, we decided not to put out the cards.
Some of the treasures
| |
Instead, we doled out the prizes on our prize table by holding a random drawing after the race. This wasn't much of a change, though, as the treasure card game itself essentially amounts to a random drawing. A number of folks donated unwanted holiday gifts to our prize table (thanks, y'all!), and many other inexpensive prizes were purchased by Leigh, leaving us with more than enough prizes for every runner who hung around for the drawing. (No word on who took home the now-traditional Treasure Hunt prize of toilet paper... but isn't it great to run a race which offers useful prizes?)
| | 
Eisenfeld pursued by Thomas
|
Prizes are all well and good, but let's not forget that there was a 5K race taking place, too! The women's competition turned out to be a Battle of the High School Juniors, as last year's series champ, Sherando High School's Rachel Eisenfeld, matched muscles against Laurel Thomas of Berkeley Springs. We read somewhere that Thomas missed the fall cross-country season due to injury, but she seemed to be back in good form at the Treasure Hunt. She hung just over Eisenfeld's shoulder for much of the race, finally making her move somewhere in the last mile.
H. Kremer, N. Specht, & M. Spivey
| |
By the finish, Thomas had opened up a gap of fourteen seconds, winning the race in 21:13. Eisenfeld went unchallenged for second in 21:27. Blissfully behind the lead duo was series veteran Ruth Riemenschneider, 45, who was the top Masters finisher in twenty-two flat. Fellow Winchesterite Ann Robb, 39, took fourth in 22:13, and it was well over a minute later when Mary Smith, 20, came across in fifth (23:34). Former Treasure Hunt director Nancy Specht was the top woman over the age of 49 (24:59, 7th woman).
| | 
Mark Stickley
Rippey vs. Poulos
|
Was there any question that Mark Stickley would cross the finish line first among the men? The Stickman, owner of the Runner's Retreat in Winchester and a one-time Olympic trials qualifier, was in attendance mainly to promote the next race in the Winter Series, the Stickman's Tandems 5K. The 40-year-old seemed to be in fine form despite some some health problems he's experienced in the past year, and he dashed to an easy men's win in 16:37. The race for second place, however, was quite a battle! Brad Rippey, 36, dueled with unabashed racing addict Ted Poulos, 41, for pretty much the entire race. But Poulos showed why he ended up as the runner-up in last year's Winter Series, holding off Rippey to take second in 17:18. Rippey followed just a few steps behind. Last year's series champ, Dustin Sweeney, 19, had fourth place all to himself for the balance of the race, running to a 17:51 finish. Fellow 19-year-old Robbie Olsen took fifth in 18:16, holding off a last-minute press by Mark Vann (18:20) and Alan Thatcher (18:21). Ron Greene, 52, was the top finisher between the ages of 50 and 59 (19:49), and Terry McCarthy, 67, was first among the sixtysomethings (26:03).
As usual, we filled space on our finish cards by printing a poll or two. Given that the NFL's conference championship games would be held the following day, we decided to continue the series' annual football prognostications by asking, "Who will win the Super Bowl?" The Philadelphia Eagles (or "Iggles", as Philly native Peter Blank likes
Iggles fan Peter Blank
| |
to call 'em) were the clear pick of the Treasure Hunters, but Philly was ousted by the underdog Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC championship game the next day. The Oakland Raiders were the next most popular choice, and they did defeat the Tennessee Titans in the AFC game. Thus, the Raiders were the official SVR Winter Series pick to win Super Bowl XXXVII on 26 January. Alas, Tampa Bay clobbered the Raiders, 48 to 21. Boy, we sure can pick 'em, eh? In the past four Winter Series, we've only managed to pick the Super Bowl winner once. Oh well, there's always next year (which is probably what the Raiders are thinking, too)!
Of course, we got the usual assortment of write-in answers to the Super Bowl poll question. A few people had the wrong sport, with Jon Palks picking the New York Yankees to win the Super Bowl, Kevin Shea taking the D.C. United, and the thoroughly confused Neal Riemenschneider picking the long-defunct Cincinnati Stingers of the long-defunct World Hockey Association. Meanwhile, we're confused by Erik Rosa's response: the "Frito-Lay Greasers". Rick Kerby was less confused than hopeful when he chose the inexplicably (or perhaps all-too-explicably) popular singer Britney Spears as his Super Bowl pick. Chuck Bowles, wise beyond his years, said that "Pepsi commercials" would win. And of course there were a few sensible folks to whom the Super Bowl holds no importance, like Margaret Spivey and Ann Robb ("Who's playing?," wrote Ann). (See the sidebar for a breakdown of the poll answers.)
We also asked a second post-race poll question: "Do you like running in the snow?" A majority of the Treasure Hunters responded in the affirmative, with only 18% answering "no" and another 8½% giving other answers. Of course, we'll concede that the question was vaguely worded, leaving it unclear whether we were asking if the respondents like to run while it's snowing or if they like running through snow already on the ground. But we sure did like what Margaret Spivey added to her "yes" answer: "The thrill of injury is enticing". (You'll find a pie chart showing the snow-running poll responses over in the sidebar.)
Race director Leigh Brown with David Black
| |
Let's give a big Treasure Hunt thumbs-up to race director Leigh Brown, who did a professional job in her second year of directing the race! Assisting Leigh were Jan & Mark Hansen (registration & and course marshaling), David Black (clock wrangler), Kim Yeck (everyone's favorite volunteer!), and yours truly. And special thanks to Nancy Specht for getting us the use of Clarke County High School! Hopefully the Treasure Hunt/Orchard Run will return again in one form or another in 2004. See ya then!
|
