75 runners enjoyed excellent weather and orchard scenery at the Treasure Hunt 5K, the third race in the Shenandoah Valley Runners 1999-2000 Winter Series!

Bill Frye w/ treasure card

In keeping with the race's theme, "treasure cards" were scattered here and there along the gravel and dirt-surfaced course, and it was amusing to watch the graceless efforts of various participants as they each tried to pick up a card without stopping. After the race, treasure hunters were called up according to the number appearing on their cards, and each got to pick a prize from a lavish layout of gewgaws, dry goods, perishables, and unwanted holiday gifts kindly donated by other runners. Vicky Krossman ended up with the first pick, but Kathy Smart ended up with the most unusual prize: a naughty twenty-two year old magazine found along the course prior to the race by race director Nancy Specht. (Kathy now has a long waiting list of people hoping to borrow the mag.)

Robyn Ritter

Eighteen-year-old Robyn Ritter participated in her first Winter Series race of the season and promptly won it in 20:48, beating out runner-up Ruth Riemenschneider by a solid fifteen seconds. Third place finisher Michelle Van Horn (21:54) made her first appearance this winter as well. Krista Farris (23:09) could not quite catch Sandy Adams (23:05) for fourth place.

The top four men finished in the same positions that they did at the Jingle Bell 5K three weeks earlier. Brand-new club member Eric Chandler (17:23) finished comfortably ahead of Dustin Sweeney (17:34), with Ryan Bayne (18:09) and Jeff Jardine (18:58) placing third and fourth. Clarke County High Schooler Tim Tomblin showed up and ran well enough for fifth place with a time of 19:08. I'm telling y'all, your Webmaster is going to have to get back into shape so that he can shake things up amongst these solid runners!

Jackie Wilson

We had a number of out-of-towners grace our race with their presence, including Kent Perkins of Reston, VA; Brad Washabaugh of Springfield, VA; Art & Ben Rottenborn of Fishersville (near Staunton, VA); and Jackie Wilson from Syracuse, NY! I've got to assume that Jackie was already in the area visiting somebody.

Also dropping in on our humble little race were two of the good people from the sports Web site WV Outside (www.wvoutside.com)! WV Outside is expanding their coverage with a site called Outside WV, and ours was the first running race outside of West Virginia that they've covered. Thanks to WV Outside's Marty Lamp for bestowing said honor on the Treasure Hunt 5K. Be sure to check out WV Outside's race write-up and selection of race photos (which are much better than mine)!

A multiple-choice poll question, "What one thing in life do you treasure the most?," was included on the cards handed out at the finish line, and "spouse/significant other" turned out to be the most popular answer. A write-in vote, "family", tied with "health" for second, while "child/children" ended up as the fourth most popular answer among those who responded.

Polly Barks

(Full poll results appear at right.) There were a number of other interesting write-in answers, including a studious "books" (from Polly Barks), a humorously narcissistic "myself" (from Dashiell Waugh-Quasebarth), a perplexing "monkeys" (from Charles Bowles), and Ryan Bayne's vague "everything". Krista Farris checked off both "spouse/significant other" and "personal deity/deities", noting that husband Patrick is one and the same. Neal Riemenschneider's racy write-in answer cannot be printed on a family Web site, but let's just say I included his answer amongst the "spouse/significant other" votes. And five respondents did not read the poll directions carefully enough and proceeded to check off more than one answer! For shame.

Registration guy Don Specht

Kudos to race director Nancy Specht for her perpetually excellent efforts, and more kudos to her volunteer army, including Nancy's husband Don; finish line workers Richard Kerby & Jerry Anderson; cross-country & track kids Grayson Sponseller, Caitlin Chandler, Ashley Kerner, and Nickie Hornbaker; and Nancy's 7th grade students David Hornbaker and Chase Malone. Great job, everybody! (Among those who were appreciative of the volunteers was Judy McCarthy, who went so far as to include amongst her poll answers a mention of the "volunteers at races who wait in the cold for me to come in".)

Don't forget to check out the race results, as well as our selection of 95 pictures from the event! And if you are missing a headband or a small burgundy glove, please see the "Lost & Found" section to the right. The Webmaster will bring those two items to the next Winter Series race, the Mystery Distance Run.