BREAKFAST ON THE TRACK
Bonnie & Felton Wright
This is our 11th year directing Breakfast on the Track and the 11th year in which Maclay School and Coach Gary Droze have proven to be the most excellent hosts for us. After all, how many other events get to use a track, a swimming pool, a pancake hut, and a basketball court for the same race?
We’re going to share a little secret about the inner workings of our marriage: Felton and I are competitive! Leading up to the race we have a running commentary on who really “directs” the race. But we both readily acknowledge that without the help of the following fabulous volunteers, we absolutely could not put on Breakfast on the Track.
Our son, Jamie, is a typical teenager who would sleep until close to noon, and then sleepwalk through a few more hours of a day, if it hadn’t been for those pesky parents who woke him up at 5 a.m.. What a great help he was. While I may play my mother, Ruth Draper and my mother-in-law, Beth Wright (if one mom tells me no, I simply go to the other mom for a different answer), neither one ever says no when we need help with Breakfast on the Track! Bill Lott and Judy Alexander are out there when it was still dark outside and later raining at the end. Olivia emailed me to volunteer and claimed she loved every minute of it! She probably ran more than a mile between the scoring table and registration. I heard a few of you swam in the pool? Our volunteer lifeguard was Kyle Goller; his mom, Linda, was wherever we needed her to be! Your pancake chefs were Loranne Ausley, Judy Chin and Lisa Echeverri, with the delicious batter provided by Uptown Café. Yummy! We missed having our longtime finish line helper Tom Perkins on the track this year; however, we had a great showing by MaryJane Tappen, Jeff Bryan, Bill McGuire and Lisa and Eric Johnson. Brian and Samantha Corbin provided the timing results with Bill Lott. Fred Deckert provides us with pictures to remember the fun we all had, and Peg Griffin ably steps in when help is most needed.
190 runners ran 4 times around the track, while 10 competed in the Hamstring 100. Pancakes, coffee and OJ were served to many more than that, and some had seconds and even thirds. While the weather was overcast at the start and allowed many runners to run faster than the oven-like conditions of the past, the rain at the end of the race also made for some dirty laundry. Speaking of dirty laundry – let me reveal a few mix-ups. The female runner of Heat 1 was initially declared the winner, but it was the female winner of Heat 2 who won the race. Jana Stolting, a 16-year old More Otter runner, ran a 5.12:79 to best the second female finisher and Masters champion Sarah Docter-Williams’ time of 5.13:01. The next bit of dirty laundry washed out in the last heat, #10. All the runners in this heat were inadvertently given faster finish times, which ranged from 1 second to 2+ minutes. We discovered that when 3 competitors emailed to tell us we posted too fast of times for them! The results are now correct and even with the fix Beverly Hand had a PR. Congratulations Beverly.
On the male side we saw Whtiney Strickland, a 17-year old Senior Eagles runner finish with a 4:31.39 and Jay Wallace taking the Masters title at 4.55:07 at 8th overall. After requesting Advil instead of blueberries in her pancakes, Fran McLean took home the GrandMasters title with a 6.48:19 paired with Karl Hempel’s 5.19:30. In the Great Grand Master division Tom Ratliffe and Perha Varley finished at 5.44:96 and 7.54:66 Congratulations to all the competitors at BOT and a big thank you to our volunteers.