Conditions were near ideal, the weather crisp and sunny, and the Platte River Trail mostly dry. Sixty-four runners and walkers competed, a respectable turnout for a winter morning. There were several heated contests in the age groups.

The open group under age 35 was pretty well dominated by these youngsters who love to run our races. The male winner, Hector Martinez, age 20, with a 27:42 time was also the overall male winner. Genevieve Rubio, age 18, did the same for the ladies with a time of 38:58.

It should be noted, however that two other, considerably more mature women broke 40 minutes: Deb Acree, 39:42, and Nancy Denniston, 39:57. Other notable achievements among the women were Vici De Haan, 51:16, and Kim Massey, 42:11. Congratulations! All the women earned those valentine roses we handed out.

Among the men all the age groups except one were well represented and contested. Frank Hathorn, his first year in the 70 plus group, won with a great time of 49:35. In the 65-69 group Rich Romeo, apparently fully recovered from his injury, smoked a 36:14 time. Pat Drayton won the 55-59 age group with a 37:24 time. Bruce Kirschner ran an outstanding race and won the 50-54 age group with a 33:31 clocking. Seven people in that group beat 40 minutes. Jim Perry did his usual best, winning the 40-44 group with a time of 32 minutes flat. Interestingly only one person in the 60-64 age group showed up, Jim Romero. What’s going on here; is he really now in a class by himself? Jim’s time was 37:53.

And we had three walkers, I mean real race walkers. Rosalia Murch, the perpetual motion machine, did the course in 62 minutes and was only a shout behind her male counterparts, Neil Horton and Ray Adams at 59:29 and 59:31 respectively.

Some trivia; Scott McFarlane, our fearless Web master has fixated recently on the obscure English measure called the rod. My only recollection of its use goes back to my early days in Minnesota canoeing in the boundary water wilderness. All the portages were measured and marked on the maps in rods. I think that was because you really didn’t want to know how long the portages were in regular measurements when carrying a canoe and two 40-pound packs. Anyway thanks to Scott we now can tell you that there are 40 rods in a furlong, so the race was 1600 rods long. Quick, exercise your brains and convert a rod to feet.

Thanks to our volunteers: Connie Ahrnsbrak, Joe Sanchez, Jerry Murch, Rob Fisher, Joe Baird, Chris Vanoni, Deb Acree, Dennis Valenchenko, and Carol Bengston. Runners Roost came through with gift certificates and Great Harvest donated a pile of bread and rolls. Thanks also to Scott Chamberlin who brought enough bagels for everyone.