by Ryan Goebel with photos from Alicia MacLeay, Butch Parker, Kate Scott, Amy Stabins, and David Colby Young 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. by Billy Kobin with photos by Julie MIllard Several Striders ran well on the trails of Lost Valley in Auburn and then also drank well at the Backyard Brew Festival on Novemberr 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! Join us for the Central Maine Striders Annual Meeting!
This event will be hosted by club Vice President, Kate Scott, at her home in Waterville. Club members, prospective members and their families are welcome to attend. Please RSVP with your number of guests and Kate's address will be shared with you. We will start off at 5pm with an optional 1-3 mile neighborhood run to enjoy the holiday lights. Jingle bells provided, headlamps and reflective gear recommended, ugly sweaters and/or other holiday costumes are encouraged! Following the run, please join us inside for food, holiday sweets, and a brief annual meeting (including awards and voting for next year's officers). BYOB. Non-alcoholic drinks will be provided. Check your latest club newsletter for the link to the evite! by Julie Millard There’s not much that gets me up before 4:00 AM, but the two events that severely cut into my beauty sleep this summer both involved the Striders! One was the Downeast Sunrise Trail Relay— which hardly counts as “getting up early” as there was no bed the night before— and the other was volunteering at IRONMAN 70.3 Maine.
It was pitch black when fellow Strider Lindsey Madison and I rendezvoused at the local “park and ride” (AKA Marden’s parking lot) for the short trip down to the Augusta boat launch. The sky was showing the first glimmers of light as we picked out our loaner kayaks and paddles from the pile and found the other faithful Strider volunteers, Amy and Allison Stabins and Martha Nadeau. We had a short briefing meeting in which we were given our assignments, then maneuvered our kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards to our designated spots on the river about half an hour before the first wave of triathletes entered the water. At 6 am, the canon signaled the start of the elite men’s race, and the pack churned through the water in a perfectly straight line. Shortly thereafter, the elite women were off, similarly powering through the course on a perfect tangent from buoy to buoy. For the next hour, wave after wave of swimmers went by, and that’s when our work really began. Volunteers flanked the course all the way down the river, and just maintaining location against the current required some serious paddling. Several athletes needed assistance, often holding onto a boat to catch their breath. Others swam completely off course and needed to be wrangled back inside the markers. Motorized police boats patrolled up and down, shouting instructions through bullhorns at volunteers, particularly when a swimmer appeared to be in distress. When the tail end of the competitors finally proceeded down the river, we were each given an assigned swimmer to escort. By about 7 am, the last athlete had made it out of the river and onto their bike for the next leg. The exhilarated volunteers paddled their way back to the boat launch and made it home in time for breakfast! Several other Striders volunteered for the race that weekend by handing out packets, directing athletes along the route, and in other capacities. Shout out to all the Striders, who included Drew McCormick, Jan Santerre, Kate Scott, and Heather Cable—our club volunteers worked together to earn a $500 grant from Ironman, which we will use to further our mission of supporting running in central Maine! Hope to see you on July 28th 2024…on the Kennebec River by Ryan Goebel, with photos by Alicia MacLeay and Ryan Goebel
Official Results and More Photos:by Heather Cable Striders, both human and canine, were well represented at this year’s Pineland Farms Trail Festival over Memorial Day weekend.
On Saturday, Arne Koch competed in the event’s 50k distance! After looping through the two loops of winding, hilly trails he finished in a time of 6:06:56. On Sunday, Julie Millard, Lindsey Madison, and myself took part in the Canicross 5k with our dogs, Lily, Ginny, and Tidbit, respectively. It was starting to heat up as runners lined up with their pups. When the race started, it was total chaos as we took off hard towards the trail. You could definitely feel the excitement of the dogs. The goal was to find a spot for you and your pup to run without the distraction of too many other dogs and runners. I remember thinking that this wasn’t even close to Tidbit’s normal pace (a pretty big 3-4 minutes faster than normal) so I knew it was only a matter of time before we’d slow down, but he just kept chugging along to the finish with an occasional stop in a puddle or pool to cool off. Tidbit and I came through the finish in 9th with Tidbit running his fastest 5k ever. Julie and Lily were not far behind us and came through in 18th. Followed by Lindsey and Ginny in 21st out of 35 competitors. If you are a dog-loving runner, I highly recommend this event. It’s a great way to bond with your dog through running and most of the time, they love it! Next up for Striders was Kate Scott running the 10k event. At this point the temps were starting to creep into the 80’s and it was getting a little toasty. Despite the warm weather and difficult course, Kate came through the finish as the 6th place female in a time of 55:45! Other striders in attendance were Ron Peck, who helped get some great photos, and Martha Nadeau, who volunteered at the finish line handing out medals. by Julie Millard These days, you can’t get much for 5 bucks. A cup of fancy coffee, a movie rental, a gallon of gas…or a delightful 5k at the Baptist Church in Smithfield. I last ran this family friendly race in 2012, and it was easy to convince Lindsey Madison and Ron Peck to join me this year. The modest entry fee, the prospect of running early to beat the heat, the tantalizing assortment of prizes, and the promise of a post-race breakfast at Early Bird were all powerful selling points.
Clearly, most Central Maine Striders appreciate a bargain (what other club offers a year-long family membership for only $20?), and so I was not surprised to see several other members at the venue. Camp Manitou was also well represented with counselors and what seemed like dozens of young campers in the field of about 50 runners. The out-and-back course along the shores of North Pond seemed like a walk in the park compared to my most recent 5k, but it could have been the nostalgia for simpler times that propelled me through to the finish. The Striders cleaned up, winning many of the age group awards, and proudly claimed several loon-themed items, including a pillow, mug, and towel, as well as maple syrup and homemade jam. The race lived up to my memory as one of Maine racing’s “hidden gems,” an all-around great way to spend a Saturday morning in July with friends! by Ryan Goebel Despite the miserable weather at this year's Mount Washington Road race, a moment was captured by the official race photographer that warmed the hearts of many runners across New England. In the days following the race, the photo shown above from Joe Viger seemed to go viral across various social media and traditional media channels. Although Joe originally didn't know who the runners in the photo were, Laura Chadwick (wife of Chris Chadwick and mother to John McGinty) recognized the photo as being her son helping Ron Paquette up the mountain. From Joe Viger's Facebook post: The photo was shared by many media outlets, including this segment on WMUR in Manchester, NH. Even the Boston Globe ran an article about the photo that included an interview with John and Ron. Unfortunately, the Boston Globe article is behind a paywall and due to copyright laws, we can't reproduce the story here. However, here's an excerpt:
The Central Maine Striders are proud to have had Ron Paquette representing us in the Mount Washington Road Race for so many years, and for John McGinty to run for us for the last five years. We hope they both make several more trips up the "one hill". For some bonus content, check out this video interview (recently unearthed by Julie Millard) that Central Maine Strider Erzsie Nagy did with Ron Paquette when they were a Lawrence High School student back in 2012:
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