On Saturday, December 9, the Central Maine Striders met at a member's house to hold their annual holiday social, meeting, elections, and jingle bell social run.  Most attendees came dressed up in their finest holiday-themed running outfits and ran around 3 miles around the neighborhood.  Despite sending out an email earlier in the week reminding the social run group about the start time, Treasurer Ron Peck forgot the meeting time and showed up nearly a half hour late, but still managed to get a couple miles in before the business meeting began.  Also before the meeting began, Ian Hepburn took the holiday outfit game to another level by changing out of his light bedazzled running outfit and into a full holiday-themed suit!

One of agenda items at the club's year-end meetings is typically some sort of awards.  Following the pattern of last year, awards were given out to two members in each of three categories, as chosen by the club's officers.  Besides getting a beautiful certificate and the glory of being a Strider award winner, the winners each received a $25 gift card to RunningWarehouse.com (which, combined with the club's 10% discount, technically held a value of $27.78).

The 2023 Striders Spirit Award was given to Sapan Bhatt and Alicia McCarthy for their positive spirit while representing the club.  Next, the President's Award was given to Julie Millard and Martha Nadeau for their invaluable contributions to the club during the year.  And finally, the 2023 Striders of the Year awards went to Billy Kobin and Lindsey Madison for their running achievements while representing the club during the year.  While we don't have the room nor the memory to list all the accomplishments of these amazing six club members through out the year, we can say that all of them contributed immensely to the club by volunteering at events, setting various personal bests, hosting other runners for social runs, and just generally being wonderful people who continually show up and participate in our little club.

The final item of business for the evening was to announce the election results.  By unanimous decision, the entire Board of Directors was reappointed to their positions.  The Board of Directors includes Patrick Guerette, Alicia MacLeay, Tom McGuire, Julie Millard, Ron Peck, and Ron Paquette.  Secretary Amy Stabins, Treasurer Ron Peck, and Vice President Kate Scott were all re-elected to their positions,  And, Martha Nadeau was elected to be the next club President.  Tom McGuire pointed out that Martha will be the club's first woman president, to which Ryan Goebel added that it is also the first time that the majority of the club officers are women.  

After the meeting was adjourned, most attendees stuck around to continue eating lasagna, holiday treats, and drink beverages.  Some Fireball may have also made the rounds.

Several Striders ran well on the trails of Lost Valley in Auburn and then also drank well at the Backyard Brew Festival on Nov. 4.

The Saturday morning event offered a 5K, 10K and 15K race up, down and around the Lost Valley ski area that had nice and muddy trails in late fall.

Lindsey Madison and Billy Kobin were the top female and male finishers, respectively, in the 5K. They cheered on Julie Millard as she won her age group in the 10K and then kept encouraging Ron Peck as he braced three loops of the tough course to take home first place in the 15K.

The real fun came afterwards, when a dozen or so brewers - all from Maine - set up tents and offered pours of various beers that tasted even better after a morning trail run.

Julie’s favorite beer came from Fluvial Brewing in Harrison (perhaps a field trip to Harrison should happen one of these days).

Billy most enjoyed the Mr. Grumpypants (coffee stout) from Norway Brewing Company in Norway. Lindsey and Ron both liked best the choices from Side By Each Brewing Co. in Auburn. 

Cheers to more runs, beer fests and fun times!