2019 Shannon Trail Series Race #1

Hello Everyone.  My regular reader(s) will note that it's been 2 months since my last post.  In that time I finished up college, went on a fantastic road trip, and relaxed a bit.  It's a new year, so it's the perfect time to get back to the "grind."
This weekend we had the first race of the trail series, one of the Road Lizards' most popular events of the year.  As I wrote about last year, Mike took Dennis and I under his wing in order to leave the series "in good hands" while he enjoys his retirement road trip.  We've been learning a lot about race directing and have thankfully had a lot of help.  Full disclosure, Dennis has been doing the majority of the work, but I do my best to help him when I can.  
As typical, Kent has been marking the course for the past couple weeks, placing pink tape on seemingly every branch and cactus on the course.  We went out there Tuesday night to take a gander and there was pink everywhere.

from left: Dennis, Kent, Me, Jon (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

Dennis, being on winter break, was able to take care of a lot of the pre-race day prep and our pre-race Friday night SoCo race bib making became just plain ole SoCo beer drinking. 

James supplied acoustic accompaniment for the runners while they tried to warm up (Courtesy of: Flaco Guapo Media.  Check out his Facebook page and website for more of his local San Angelo coverage)

Team RWB pre-race.  I was on my Wal-Mart run (Courtesy of: Brenda Batista Tyler)

I was able to rustle up four of my students to be volunteers and James to play some guitar for us on race day. It's great when you have people that you can count on to show up on time and do what's needed to pull off a successful race FOR FREE.  (OK, so they get a free SARL race entry, but James sure won't be using that.  Let me know if you, dear reader, are interested/able to volunteer at our upcoming races.) 

Most of the volunteer crew.  Kyle was at our water stop and a few both ran and volunteered
(Courtesy of: Flaco Guapo Media)

Dot and Daniela working registration (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

Dang it Nicole, this was supposed to be "natural" shot (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

After Ross, the SARL equipment manager, directed the race directors on setting everything up and donning our bright yellow vests, the runners started showing up.  James started plunking away at his guitar and I made an "emergency" Wal-Mart run.  The race seemed to go off well.  I didn't hear of anyone getting lost nor did I see any blood.  I guess the thick, slippery mud slowed everyone down and made them consider each step. 

Dennis giving part 1 of the pre-race brief (Courtesy of: Flaco Guapo Media)

Kent is apparently not singing, but talking about mud (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

these guys had the right idea (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

the view up the last little hill to the finish (Couresy of: Jammie Preiser)

I wanted to use this blog post to go over the way the series point and award system works.  Each race has awards for the top 3 males and females.  We gave out awards a little too late, so if you finished in the top 3 and didn't get your award, make sure to hit us up.  The series will have top 3 overall for male and female and then top 3 for each age group .  (we added 2nd and 3rd overall medals this year)  The age groups are 0-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60+

How the point system works:

The point system comes from high school and college cross country.  The overall place that the runner took is how many points they receive from that race.  Since I'm not running this year, I'm going to use my friend Alex as my example.  (Alex was the female 5k series champion last year but is 6 months pregnant right now.)  Alex finished in 39th place, good for 3rd place in the female 20-29 division.  She gets 39 points moving forward.  Caitlyn Howarth finished in 35th, had 35 points and is in 2nd in the same division.  Alex will have to place 4 overall positions higher than Caitlyn over the next 2 races in order to pass her for second.  Since not everyone can make every race, runners that do 2 races are still eligible for a top 3 spot.  HOWEVER, they come in "last place" for the race that they miss.  77 runners finished the race, so the folks that did not show but are signed up received 78 points.  Obviously, just as in golf and in cross country, lowest score wins.  After everyone has finished the third race, we'll tabulate the results and get the awards out that same day.  Thankfully, Dennis ordered a new app that will make it easier for us this year.  Abacus not required.

Series Prospects/Returning Placers

It's a little early to give a breakdown of how everyone is placed after just one race, but I will take a look at returning 2018 placers and how they're looking after race #1.  

5K:

Last year's overall champion, Adrian Rodriguez is back this year.  Currently, he's in 4th overall and leading the 20-29 men.

speedsters at the start, including Marcelo Baraza and Adrian Rodriguez (Courtesy of: Flaco Guapo Media)

As I mentioned earlier, Adrian's sister Alex was the female 5k champ last year and is in 3rd in the female 20-29 so far this year.  Jamison Jurado, last year's male 0-15 (we tweaked the age groups just a little) champ is back at it, leading the way this year.  The third Rodriguez sibling, Vanessa took 2nd in the female 20-29 division last year and is leading this year.  Last year's male 20-29 champ, Augustine Mendoza bumped up to the long course this year and is in 4th in a very tough division. 

Kristi and Elizabeth Cook took 2nd and 3rd in last year's 30-39 female division but find them in probably the race's most competitive division and sit in 6th and 13th this year.  Jann Jann Jurado and Cody Guins were 2nd and 3rd in the 30-39 male division last year but have flipped and are in 5th and 4th this year.  

One of my Army students finishing, he came in 5th overall in the 5k (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

One of my Air Force students, he ended up coming in 8th overall in the 10k (Courtesy of: Jammie Preiser)

Sophia Flores was 3rd last year in 40-49 female and finds herself in 4th this year.  Matt Garcia won the 40-49 male last year but is hunting for an overall medal this year, currently in 3rd.  Bob Biggers was 2nd last year and is leading the way this year.

Wendell Baucom and Dennis Hayes were 2nd and 3rd at 50-59 last year and are currently 3rd and 5th.  Wendell Wheaton took the gold in the 60+ men's division last year and sits in 2nd this year while last year's silver medalist, Jerry Roach, is in 4th.

Long Series:

Neither of the long course series champs from last year have shown up yet.  Looks like we'll have new champs!

Ariel Schmidt was the long course 0-15 champ and this year she's dropped down to the 5k division.  Doesn't matter though, she's still leading!  Last year's 3rd place 20-29 woman, Rocio Cruz, is leading the 2019 series so far.  Taylor Harrison, last year's 20-29 champ is at it again so far this year.  Carlos Cruz, last year's 2nd place in 20-29 has not only turned 30, but also dropped to the 5k series.  He's leading the way in the 30-39 division.  Melissa Rocha and Keerthana Karumbaiah were 2nd and 3rd last year and find themselves in 5th and 6th this year.  The male division will have a new look this year as none of the top 4 from last year ran this race.  (Including Dennis and me).

Lucia Hernandez took 3rd in the female 40-49 last year and is in 2nd so far.  She was sick on race day #3 last year but still showed up to get her medal.  Blake Snider, 2nd in 40-49 last year, is 3rd overall so far.  Lisa Warechowski won the 50-59 female division last year and leads the overall long series this year.  Susan Terry took 2nd last year but "levelled up" to the 60+ division this year and is leading.  Dorothy Langdon, 2nd last year in the 60+, bumped down to the 5k series and is in 4th.  Kent Fish is leading the long series again this year, even after running 100k 7 days before the race.Terry Shaner, 2nd last year also moved down to the 5k series and is leading the way.  

Those are all of the returning medalists, but a LOT can happen over the next couple of races.  Thanks everyone for coming out, we hope you had fun!  

If you haven't signed up yet and would like to, you can register here.

Other Race Pics (all courtesy of Jammie Preiser):

way too happy

Don't let her catch you!

316 TRS Ops Supe and First Sergeant finishing a 10K ruck

I guess shirts aren't required to run in 38 degree weather

Go Jon Go! (those are some nice shoes)

Bekka and Cody coming in together, as always

OK, so Jammie might not have taken all of these pics.  Dot took over camera duties while Jammie was running

Team RWB chapter Presiden Lenny Christo pushing it to the finish

the "good finish" committee

Top 2 in the 5k

top 2 in the 10k

Put 'er there