When you are able to share your love of running and walking with your partner, you share a special bond. As many of you know, I met Bob through running as I am sure many others have too. Our newest happy running couple is Carol Demeo and Tom Kasprik, see photo. Carol is our Social Networking Director and Tom is our Coach for our Sunday Fun Runs / Walks. Congratulations to Carol too on her Graduation with an Associate Degree in Accounting. Tom popped the question on her graduation day with her children looking on. We love you both and could not be happier
The last weekend in January, was the TROPICAL 5K, ING MIAMI MARATHON & EXPO. What a great time we had with over 21,000 participating. We started out on Friday & Saturday with the Expo, Saturday we participated in the Tropical 5K and finished up volunteering for the start and Finishline for the Marathon on Sunday. To our friends at US Road Sports … GREAT JOB! For our friends and members that participated and or volunteered at this year’s event, THANK YOU as well. Your support of this event and our club is greatly appreciated.
The THREE FOR THE ROAD SERIES kicked off this year with the Women’s Wellness 5K on February 12 at Coral Spring Medical Center. This race was well attended for the weather being an issue. We have over 300 participants this year and look forward to growing this race next year.
Our club will again be exhibiting at the A1A MARATHON & EXP starting on Friday 18 and 19th. We hope that you will stop by, we have our new singlets and tech T's on sales taht are sponsored by Runner's Depot and Starbucks. For the Marathon, we will again be volunteering at the water stop just north of Sunrise on A1A. Look for more details about this weekend in next month issue.
The HEATHLY CHOICE 5K on Saturday February 19th is part of the A1A MARATHON weekend. This event will be held at Birch Start Park and is part of the official activities for the marathon. This is a new race for us but has been part of the Marathon for the past 5 years. We hope to grow this event into a major event next year. Look for more on this event in next month newsletter as well.
The second event in the Three for the Road Series is 5K FOR A BETTER DAY on Saturday February 26th. This event supports the Chris Evert Children’s Cancer Center at Broward General. Every year this event is well supported and is sponsored by the American Heritage School. They do a great job raising money for the hospital and providing over 90 volunteers for this event. We will have more on this event in next month issue.
We will be heading up to Orlando for the Princess Half Marathon Saturday after the 5K for a Better Day. Our Princes will be out on the course again entertaining all the Princess’s. If you plan to go up for the race, give me a call, we will be wearing our outrageous orange Royal Attire.
Our last event in the Series is our SAINT PATRICKS 4 MILER on Saturday March 12th at Tradewinds Park. This being the last event in the three race series, the $50 in gift certificates from Chuck’s Steakhouse, Starbucks, Smoothie King, California Pizza Kitchen and Running Wild and a special medal will be given out to everyone that completed or volunteered at all three races. The awards for Saint Patrick’s will be given first then the Series awards after that. More on this next month as well …
Run For Fun,
Cynthia
I would like to start out by wishing everyone a Happy New Year … time to set new goals, make new friends and Run for Fun and to purchase one of our new orange club singlets and short sleeve dry fit T-shirts. We are selling them at a great price, $10 for members and $15 for non-members, thanks to our two Team Sponsors Runner’s Depot and Starbucks.
At our Annual Meeting this year, we voted to expand our Board of Directors to include three more voting positions, Social Marketing Carol Demeo, E-Newsletter Jon Renaud & Membership Maria Fletcher. These positions, up to this point, were listed under Volunteer Positions and now they are part of our full Board of Directors…
Jingle Bell Jog, December 4th, was our last event completed at the time I am writing this newsletter. We had over 850 participants and another 50 in the Kids Fun Runs. This was the first year that our club took more of a leadership and financial role to grow this event. We were able to lower the expenses and raise more money for the Wellness Center at Broward General. For that we are most proud and look forward to making next year even better. Thanks to everyone that volunteered and supported this event.
Turn On the Lights 5K, December 18th, will be our next event. By the time you read this, the race will have come and gone but not to worry, we will have more on this event in next month’s issue.
Our Resolution 5K, December 26th, will end our year of running and racing. This event is always a favorite with the locals and many visiting this time of year. Make sure to wear a hat because everyone that finish wearing one will receive a gift card from California Pizza Kitchen. We will have more on this event as well in next month newsletter… see our ad in this issue or go to www.gflrrc.org for more information.
Disney Marathon weekend, January 8th & 9th, kicks off the new year with our clubs support of the Jerry Ayre Memorial Foundation. Every year, many of us run Disney to raise money for scholarships in Jerry’s name. This year, as in the past, Linda and Jorge Ayre have planned a weekend full of fun activities around the 5K, Half and Full Marathon. If you would like to join us, please drop me a line or give me a call, all are welcome and we always need more volunteers for our cheering stations.
ING Miami Marathon weekend, January 29th & 30th, is our next club event. It starts out on Friday with the Expo, Saturday we compete in the Tropical 5K and Sunday we run / walk the half or full Marathon. For those that are not running or walking, our club will again be volunteering at the start and finishline. So, if you are coming to Miami to watch a friend or family member complete the half or full marathon, you can help at the start and when they finish you will be in inside the finishline to greet them. Interested, drop me a line or give me a call.
A1A Marathon Weekend, February 19th & 20th, is our one of our first events in February. It starts out with an Expo Friday 18th, on Saturday we produce the Health Choice 5K and finish up on Sunday volunteering at our water stop just north of Sunrise on A1A for the marathon. Look for more details in the next issue.
Women’s Wellness, February 12th, is the first race in the THREE FOR THE ROAD SERIES. We are very happy to have it included in the Series this year. It starts and finishes at the Coral Springs Medical Center.
5K FOR A Better Day, February 26th, is the second race in the THREE FOR THE RAOD SERIES. This popular event starts at Broward General, runs through New River and back to the hospital. This event is organized by the Pre-Med students at American Heritage School.
Saint Patrick’s, March 12th, wraps up the THREE FOR THE ROAD SERIES. This four mile event at Tradewinds is always a favorite with the runners and walkers. Because of the new construction at the park, this year’s event will be staged at the South End of the park. Look for more information about the Series and these three race in next months issue.
Run For Fun,
Cynthia
I want to start out by saying THANK YOU to our members and friends of our club for your continued support throughout the year. Our membership is more active than ever and our events had more participants then last year.
Our first event in October was our A1A Marathon 15K / 30K Training Run / Walk on October 17th. We had over 250 participants this year. Exclusive Sports Marketing was again our sponsor this year, without their support we could not even consider putting on this event. To Matt, Chris and his Team at ESM THANK YOU for your continued support of our club and running in South Florida.
Our Spooktacular 5K was held on the 30th at TY Park in Hollywood. We had over 350 participants and over 75 ran or walked in costume. The Kids run was the best in my mind, seeing over 30 participate and their parents taking all those photos was really great. Check out the photos on our web site, we are the only clubs that gives you FREE PHOTOS of every event. To our volunteers that arrived early to make this event run so smoothed, a big THANK YOU! A special thanks to Bob Schnell for all his work taking and placing these photos on our web site.
In November we are again helping with the 13.1 Marathon in Fort Lauderdale on the 14th. US Road Sports and Entertainment is producing this event and one of our clubs major sponsors. So look for more on the event in next month’s issue as well. We also help them out at their ING Miami Marathon, so if you would like to help us work the start and finishline, give me a call.
Last month we had our club elections and made some changes to our club Constitution and By-Laws. I am writing this on November 11th and our elections are next week, so we will have the results in next month issue.
We are ending the year with four events in December, Jingle Bell Jog 5K on the 4th, Turn On The Lights 5K on the 18th , our club’s PJ Holiday Party on the evening of the 18th as well and our Resolution 5K on the 26th. They are all listed on our web site and an ad for each event in this issue. We will have more on these events in next month’s issue as well.
I want to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and more Run For Fun in the New Year ….
Run for Fun,
Cynthia
I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I always look forward to participating in the Tamarac Turkey Trot and seeing all of our Running & Walking Family there. I am so thankful for having such a wonderful extended family. Running has helped me in so many ways, given me a large extended family, helped me stay fit and found me a loving husband. For those reasons and many more, THANK YOU for being part of our Running and Walking Family.
As I write this month’s message, our club has two every special events in October. The first is our A1A 15K / 30K Training Run sponsored by the A1A Marathon & Half Marathon on October 17th. We expect about 250 participants and many of those participating use this as their tune up for the Fall Marathon or the start of their training for the A1A Marathon in February. In any case, we appreciate all your support and look for more on this event in next month’s newsletter.
Our other event in October will be our Spooktacular 5K at TY Park on October 30th. This race always brings out a great group of participants that dress up in the best Halloween Costumes. We move the race back 15 minutes this year to 7:15 AM so that we have better daylight. We are expecting over 400 this year. Look for more details in next month’s newsletter.
This month we have our Board of Directors Elections on Thursday November 18th at George English Park. We will be electing the Executive Committee (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasure) and ratifying recommended changes to our club Constitution and By-Law. This would be a great time to show your support of the club by attending this Fun Run / Walk at 6:30 PM and at 8:30 PM stay for the election and party afterwards. The only requirement to vote is to be a current member of the club. Hope you will show your support and cast your vote.
Next month, we have three events starting with Jingle Bell Jog on December 4th at Sawgrass Technology Park in Sunrise, Turn On the Light 5K on December 18th at Tradewinds and ending the year with our Resolution 5K on December 26th at Birch State Park. Check out our web site www.gflrrc.org for more details.
Run for Fun,
Cynthia
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Can you believe that it is already the beginning of our FALL RACING SEASON??? Many of us have trained all summer long for a fall marathon. Congrats on keeping to your plan, I know that it was not easy to train in south Florida‘s HEAT, but I am sure you will see the reward’s in finishing that marathon or half this fall. GOOD LUCK TO ALL !!!
We started August with our ING Miami Marathon Kick Off 5K at Birch State Park on the 14th. What a great turnout, we had over 400 participants and great weather to boot. This has fast become one of the larger summer events for our club. To our Sponsors, Volunteers and participants, we THANK YOU for your continued support.
We finished August with our Sneaker Strut at Starbucks in Coconut Creek. The weather could not have been any worst. Driving rain and wind that seemed to never stop, but that did not stop a small but mighty group of club members from having a good time. Artie Dohler, from Starbucks, rolled out a select group of coffees for us to sample. The one everyone seemed to like the best was the Pumpkin Spice… Thank you Starbucks for sponsoring this event and to everyone that braved the weather to attend.
September 4th started the month out with our Fall Fling 5K at Tradewinds Park. As many of you know, the park in being remodeled so we moved the race to the fall south end of the park. The race started on the road for the first two miles and then moved to the paved path around the lake to the finish. The new course really worked well for the 250 participants, sponsors and volunteers … AccuChip did a great job scoring this their 1st race with us and we look forward to growing our partnership with them. This was also the first race since St Patrick’s 4 Miler that we had our own photographer taking FREE PHOTO’s, so remember to check out our web site after the race for your photo finishing the race.
Moving on to October, we have two races this month. The first one is our Fort Lauderdale Marathon Training Run 15K / 30K on Sunday October 17th at the Deerfield Beach Pavilion next to JB’s. This is a great tune up for your fall marathon. This event starts at 6 AM and we ask that everyone finish by 11 AM. Our next event is our popular Spooktacular 5K on Saturday October 30th at TY Park in Hollywood. If you have not participated in this event in the past, you don’t want to miss this one. Check out last year’s photo’s on our web site. Everyone really gets into the Halloween Spirit. See our ad’s in this month’s issue and on our web site for more information.
AS I close this month’s president’s message I must take time to thank our retiring newsletter editor Linda Ayre for a job “WELL DONE” we will MISS YOU. At the same time let me introduce our new newsletter team of Megan McKenzie and our roving reporter Robin Shachner (See Above Photo) GOOD LUCK on your new venture.
Run For Fun,
Cynthia
Our club’s road trip for July was to the Southernmost 5K in Key West on July 24th … this year we had over 30 members join us for this Saturday race. As usual, we came home with quite a few awards. After the race, most of us returned to the Hyatt’s pool for a midnight swim and dinner around the pool. On Sunday, we enjoyed shopping downtown and started our return to the mainland around 4 PM. If you have not taken in a race in Key West, you need to as they have over 26 events each year.
As I write this month message, we are 5 days away from the ING Miami Marathon Kick Off 5K. As most of you know, this is the Kick Off race for your training for the Miami Marathon and ½ Marathon. We always have a good turn out and look forward to telling you more about this event in next month’s issue.
On August 29th, we have our Sneaker Strut at the Starbucks at Lyons and the Sawgrass in Coconut Creek. This is a new social for us, we will have some good food, drinks and dancing for everyone that attends. You can only register at our web site, we will have limited tickets available at the site so make sure you register ASAP. We will have more on this in the next issue as well.
This month, September, we have moved our Fall Fling 5K to the Labor Rate weekend. This race is again at Tradewinds Park but on Saturday September 4th. We have move the start to the South End of the Park because the normal staging area is under construction. So, as you enter the park on race day, continue on the main road to the south end of the park. Make this holiday weekend race your first race of the fall racing season. As always, we will have a great embroidered t-shirt, food, unique awards and FREE RACE PHOTO’s and fun for the whole family.
As many of you know, my mother passed on July 21st . I want to thank everyone that sent their prayers and cards, Bob and I appreciated it more then you will ever know. Mom was with us for almost 87 years, we will cherish the memories of her singing at our races and all the help she gave us finding many of our awards for our races. Remember to take the time to let your parents know how much they mean to you …
Run For Fun,
Cynthia
One of the most enjoyable things about Marathon Training are the times we are supporting other runners / walkers. This month’s photo was taken in Cleveland Ohio after watching Coach Tom Kasprik finish his home town marathon. Carol, Bob and myself dressed like old time rockers. We rented bikes and were able to see Coach Tom at three different points on the course. We even make the sports section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer … Coach Tom finish in 3:28 under windy conditions. We had a blast !
Everything has a start and a finish, our Fiesta Running and Walking expo was our official start of our Marathon Training for many of us that are running / walking a full marathon. Having a goal to finish a marathon is not something that you decide to do without a plan. If you can to our Fiesta, you were treated to some very wise words of wisdom from Coach Robert Hendrick, Coach Tom Kasprik, Coach Howard Elakman, Coach Rosanne Elakman, Coach Bob Barnard and Dr Jeff Liss. I want to thank them all for sharing their experiences and wisdom with the 85 members that attended. To our sponsors that had a booth at the event, Runners Edge, Runner’s Depot and Running Wild, to our food sponsors Chipolte & Tijuana Flats with your support, this event would not of been the success that it was. Please remember to let Linda Ayre know what ½ or full marathon you have as your goal for this marathon season. She will list it in our newsletter.
Our next event is our Freedom 5K at Quiet Waters Park on June 26th. Last year we had over 400 participants and look to have even more at this year race. As of this writing, Runner’s Edge and Runner’s Depot are confirmed to be at our event to showcase some of their latest products and equipment. Gatorade will be on site to give a tasting of their new Natural drinks. Hope you will make this part of your holiday week and bring with whole family. We will have a Youth Mile, Kids Dash, special awards for those that get into the July 4th sprit by wearing the most patriotic attire while running / walking this event. See our ad in this issue.
We will again be car pooling to the Southernmost 5K on Saturday July 24th … we leave Fort Lauderdale on Saturday morning for the 7 PM race start in Key West. So if you think you would like to join us, give me a call …
Hope you take time to enjoy the summer, run / walk early and stay hydrated …
Run For Fun,
Cynthia
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President Message
