NEWSLETTER
NUMBER TWO – May 30, 2002
The one-year anniversary of the
100 Marathon Club North America occurred at the 2nd annual Yakima
River Canyon Marathon (YRCM) near Yakima, Washington, on April 6,
2002. At the packet pickup and expo,
Lenore and I set up a club booth for recruiting and for the sale of short and
long sleeved T-shirts that have the club logo and name on them. On display for ordering were sample #100,
#200 (up to #600) pins to represent event accomplishments for members. The new members who signed up brought our
total membership to 83. Since then
we’ve added five more for a total of 88.
Of the 383 entrants in the marathon, 21 were club members. At the pasta feed those members present were called to center stage by Lenore for recognition and to receive a certificate of membership. All other members will receive their certificates by mail.
The club member with the most marathons who ran the YRCM was Big Dave Carter from Bedford Beds in England. He had 495 marathon completions! Since then he ran his 500th MARATHON on May 19th at the Halstead Marathon in Scotland. Congratulations, Dave!! As if running a marathon isn’t difficult enough, Big Dave often carries a large flag. In our race the British Union Jack and an American flag were attached to the base banner. On it was printed, “Big Dave’s Running Tour.” Big Dave was accompanied by Roger Biggs and Jack Brooks also from England. Roger has run over 220 marathons and Jack, who ran his 50th marathon at the YRCM, is well on the way to his first 100. Dave, Roger and Jack are 50 staters who added Washington to their state list on the trip to the U.S.
Jerry Martin, 54, of
Greenacres (near Spokane, WA) is the first club member who is a wheelchair
athlete. He participated in his first
marathon at Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, in 1982 and completed his 100th
event at Portland, Oregon, in 2000. At
the Yakima River Canyon Marathon on April 6, 2002, he finished in
a time of 2:15:55 for his second, consecutive wheelchair division YRCM win. This was his 109th
marathon. He has many wins and high
place finishes as one would expect from an athlete whose personal record is
1:50.
Two women club members ran YRCM #2, Gunhild Swanson, 57, of Spokane is a runner who has dominated
several age divisions the past 20 years.
She also has been the overall women’s winner in several races early in
her running career. She and her husband
Jack (also a 100 Marathon Club NA member) travel widely to run
marathons. This includes trips to
Germany, Gunhild’s homeland before emigrating to the U.S. She has run over 130 marathons/ultras with a
marathon PR of 2:56:28. Not only did
Gunhild win her age division at the inaugural Wings of Gold Marathon held on
Whidbey Island (north of Seattle) on April 27, 2002, she was the first woman
overall!! The next weekend in the
well-known 7 ½ mile Bloomsday Run in Spokane where there were 45,754 finishers,
she won the 55-59F age division.
Currently, she’s training to run her first Western States 100 Mile
Endurance run (Squaw Valley to Auburn, California) in June.
Chris Ralph, 50, is
a well-known marathoner, ultrarunner and ultramarathon race director in the
Seattle area. In spite of being
diagnosed and treated for multiple sclerosis, she is an active runner and has
amassed almost 130 marathons/ultras.
The most spectacular and difficult race that she and a running partner
have run is the Iditarod Trail in Alaska.
This race is 100 miles long, and participants are required to drag their
own “aid stations” on a sled as they run.
She was the overall women’s winner!
Chris was the first race director of the spectacular, and arduous, White
River 50 Mile Run near Mt. Rainier in Washington State’s Cascade
Mountains. She also is the race
director of the Bridle Trails 50K in the Seattle area. This is a forested run on muddy trails,
mostly in darkness….a challenging ultra.
Congratulations to Mae Palm, 62, of Whistler, BC. She won her age division at the Vancouver
International Marathon on May 5, 2002, at Vancouver, BC., in a time of
3:57:07. This was her 100th
26.2 mile marathon, and we welcome
her as one of the newest club members and the first Canadian woman to
join. Mae has a remarkable record. She has completed three ironman
triathlons….two at Penticton, BC, in 2000 and 2001 and the Ironman World
Championship in Hawaii last year. In
the latter, she finished first in the 60-64F division by an hour over the next
competitor! For this accomplishment she
was named the Women’s Master
Triathlete of the Year by the
Canadian Triathlon Federation. Mae also
beat the cut-off time of 30 hours at the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run
in 1995….finishing in 29 hours and 54 minutes!
She also set seven records at the Elk/Beaver Ultramarathon 100K
Championship in 2000 where she finished in third place overall.
We were privileged to have Jose Nebrida from Chicago return to run our YRCM #2. After the tragic day of September 11, 2001,
Jose pledged to run a marathon in all 50 states and DC within two years
carrying the American flag. We were
honored that he chose our marathon for his Washington. He is a naturalized citizen who loves his
country and feels that this is a way to show how thankful he is for all the
opportunities afforded him in the U.S.
He was well on his way to achieving this goal when a heart attack and
triple by-pass surgery stopped his progress….but only for a short time. He plans on returning to his 9-11 goal as
soon as his “speedy” recovery is accomplished.
His doctors consider his progress so far to be phenomenal and attribute
it to his marathoning and exercising.
We wish this “speedy recovery” for him.
Peter Graham,
secretary of the 100 Marathon Club United Kingdom, invites all interested
runners to the club’s Greenwich Centenary Foot Tunnel Marathon at London,
England, on August 4, 2002. This
underground marathon below the Thames River commemorates the 100-year
anniversary of this historic pedestrian tunnel. The London entryway is located
by the Cutty Sark sailing ship. The
tunnel connects Greenwich and the Island of Dogs. It is 390 meters long and is sited about 40 feet below the river
surface. This course requires 56 7/8
laps to complete a marathon and is a one-time event. If you have interest in it, contact Peter Graham by e-mail at peter@grahams.co.uk or write to him at 2
Trinity Court, Trinity Road, London N2 85H, United Kingdom. The race is capped at 100 entrants. I have four entry forms that I can provide
to club members who would like to run this unique, one-time event.
Bob Fletcher let us
know that his book Spaghetti
Every Friday is available to
club members at the reduced price of $10.00.
His website is www.spaghettieveryfriday.com. I’m reading it again and coming across names
of runners whom I didn’t know when I first read the book….e.g., Al Becken of
San Antonio, Texas, who ran the inaugural YRCM last year.
The following 100 Marathon Club NA items are available:
You may order as many as you qualify for. They are a specialty item and will be available as we receive
requests and notify our supplier. The
first order will be placed soon, so let us know as soon as you can which pins
you want. We’ll add your request to
those ordered at the YRCM in April.
Your input is welcome for future newsletters. If you’d like to have something included in the next one, please
send it to us.
The second anniversary of the 100 Marathon Club North America will be
celebrated at the weekend festivities of the third annual Yakima River Canyon Marathon on April 5, 2003. the website for our marathon is http://www.ontherun.com/yrcm. The parent site (ontherun.com) has the
results of this year’s race and my report about it.
Bob and Lenore Dolphin
10519 126th Avenue S.E.
Renton, WA 98056
(425)226-1518 (Renton)….(509)966-0188 (Yakima)
e-mail: dolphinmteam@earthlink.net
100 MARATHON CLUB NORTH AMERICA ROSTER
Tom Adair, Daniel
Archambeau, Eugene Barker, Dick Bartlett, Lois Berkowitz, Victor Bhatt, Roger
Biggs, Steve Boone, Jim Boyd, Ray Boytim, John Bozung, Ron Bucy, Cliff Burgess,
Ed Burnham, Tim Byrnes, Chuck Cammack, Burt Carlson, Bob Carpenter, Big Dave
Carter, Marty Chalfin, Harold Copeland, Richard Cromwell, Rich DeCample, Eugene
DeFronzo, Carol Dellinger, Tom Detore, Bob Dolphin, Brian Doherty, Steve
Edwards, Eb Engelmann, Evan Fagan, Frank Fleetham, Bob Fletcher, Ron Fowler,
Steve Frederickson, Steve Fuller, Deborah Gobins, Gayle Godfrey, Peter Graham,
Randy Hansen, Mark Hartinger, Wally Herman, Jerry Herndon, Christian Hottas,
Karl Jensen, Greg Judge, Sharon Kerson, Andy Kotulski, Jim Kunz, Bob Lehew,
Phil Little, Bill Mack, Jerry Martin, HiGuy Matti, Don McNelly, Paul Morgan,
Stan Nakashima, Jose Nebrida, Stan Neumann, K-G Nystrom, Mae Palm, Mel Preedy,
Chris Ralph, Edwin Roth, Henry Rueden, Edson Sanches, John Schaap, Ray
Scharenbrock, Del Scharffenburg, Jim Scheer, Frank Searfus, Clay Shaw, Seth
Sundit, Gunhild Swanson, Jack Swanson, Barbara Szlechetka, Ralph Thompson, Gene
Trahern, Zach VanBlack, Dave Vent, John Wallace, Ross Waltzer, William Watson,
Carol Westerman, Bill Whipp, Ray Wold, Rick Worley, Lynn Yarnall.