News

This is the annual State of the Club Report which our President gave on Dec. 5, 2009 that reviewed the activities of the Heartland Racewalkers for the past year and made some projections for 2010.<

We had our annual meeting last year on Dec. 6 with 40 people in attendance, including our special guest, Dick Ross, and Lori Bainter-Ratzlaff's two daughters. After the meeting was over, our friend, BJ the DJ paid a brief visit.

Elections for the 2009 year were held with the following results:

• Vice-President Forrest Weddle
• Treasurer Tom Oakes
• Secretary Sarah Justice
• Clinic Director Fred Adams
• Historian Jean Brunnenkant
• President Alan Poisner

Other board members selected were: Wayne Kerns, Jean Brunnenkant, Tom Young, Moe Lago, Ruth Weddle, Leah Luckeroth, Kathy Dockter. Alan gave the State of the Club address and thanked the officers and board members for the past year. Trudy Nepstad showed off her winter wear as usual and has offered to donate 20% of the sales to our Club's Development Fund. Thanks Trudy.

On January 1st, we started off the New Year by taking part in the annual New Year's Day Run/Walk at the Athletic Club of Overland Park, sponsored by the KC Track Club. This was followed by breakfast afterwards. This is an annual club tradition and I invite you to join us this year.

At our first meeting of the year, we showed videos of the Jonathan Matthews Clinic last April. At the end of the month, 7 Members kept up our tradition by entering the Ground Hog 5K (in the Subtropolis cave). It's always about 58 degrees for this race, regardless of the outside weather.

In February, we showed videos of racewalking history, including our founder, Debbi Lawrence who was to pay us a visit later in the month. We had 44 paid up members. Debbi Lawrence (now Debbi Sullivan) made a presentation to our club and gave a brief clinic on racewalking. 32 walkers attended as did the Fitness Plus manager, Jenny Wallace. Santosh & Lakshmi Dandi competed in Manhattan in the Mo Valley USATF indoor championship.

At our March meeting, Denise Strickler talked to us about Bee-Keeping along with some larger than life pictures of the little creatures. The Dandis told us about their races in Manhattan and we celebrated Phil Jacobs' retirement. Our homepage on the web had now had a cumulative total of 5000 hits, with about 100 per month. 12 of our members entered an indoor race at Johnson County Community College, sponsored by the 'Heartland Athletic Services'

In April, Rebecca Smith gave us a talk on lung function and respiratory testing, her professional activity. It was very interesting and shows that we have a lot of talented members in our club.

On April 5: Our Brew Relay Team. The Perennial Perpetual Pedestrians walked the 43-mile trip to Lawrence in very challenging weather that ranged from freezing rain to 45 mph winds. Our hearty band (Phil Jacobs, BJ Thornburg, Susan Rico, Alan Poisner and Laurie Bell) braved the elements and actually beat 5 running teams. We celebrated afterwards with our traditional meal at the Mad Greek Restaurant.

In May we showed some a video of the South Texas Walking club, a youth team. Santosh Dandi was listed in the USATF monthly magazine as one of the youth honorees in his age division, based on his performance at last year's nationals. There a number of races in May that our club entered including Fred in the St. Louis Sr. Games and Martie & Floyd in the Raytown one-miler. We again hosted the Wednesday Night Run (WNR) at Leawood City Park with a picnic after the running and walking.

In June, we had a guest speaker from the Johnson County Volunteers. We have a special member who has been doing Meals on Wheels for many years, Tom Young. Heartland Racewalkers received a report of a heartwarming event: the marriage onboard a ship in the Mediterranean of Floyd and Martie Lykens Delon). There was a reception for Martie and Floyd at Martie's church later in the month. It was one of the rare times where a large number of HRW members congregated without wearing exercise clothes and shoes. An article about Jean and Alan appeared in the Overland Park Sun and is copied on our homepage. Alan manned a table at the Johnson County Parks & Recreation Step in Shape Program again this year and passed out information. We were lucky that Marie Wilkie was there and has since become an active member of our club.

There were some important races in June. The Heartland USATF Outdoor races were held on June 5 at Park Hill HS. Our members did the 1500 meter and/or 3000 meter walks; and Lakshmi and Santosh Dandi also did the shot put. The Dandi's almost didn't make it because there car came to a stop a few blocks before arriving at the track. On June 12, we had racers in the Missouri Valley USATF Outdoor Championships at Shawnee Mission South HS, including youth, open and Masters (1500, 3000 and 5000 meters). We also had members who competed in the Heartland Outdoor meet at Johnson County Community College. Three of our members did the Beat the Heat race on June 21 (Fathers' Day).

In July our monthly meeting was actually the second Saturday of the month and we had a great picnic in Roe Park. We learned that Carol Goslin completed her 50-state marathon quest and will be featured in a future article in the KC Star. Mark Landry finished his 47th on his way to completing his 60-state quest later in the year. Alan, Martie and Floyd again did the Freedom Day Run on July 4th in Lenexa-a fun event. Martie & Alan won medals although there was no walking division. We had a good picnic on July 18 with 30 walkers and guests. Santosh Dandi raced in Wichita and qualified for the nationals but Lakshmi accidentally was not able to enter her race but later the national officials allowed her to enter the National Race to represent the Missouri Valley USATF. Other races in July were: the Sunflower State Games in Topeka, in which all members of HRW won medals (and qualified for the nationals next year in San Diego). Also the Missouri Senior Games were held in Columbia with less than usual judging. The national USATF Junior Olympics were held in Greensboro, NC and Lakshmi and Santosh represented the Missouri Valley and our club. Santosh took 7th in the 3000 meters and Lakshmi took 11th in the 1500 meters with a PR time of 9:21'. Congratulations to both for excelling at the national level. There success was due to much hard work and training and we are very proud of them.

In August, the article about Carol Goslin appeared in the KC Star Northland edition. The Dandis continued to train at Shawnee Mission North High School Track and Alan was there for a number of sessions to help them and him prepare for national races.

The big event in August was the National Senior Olympics in Palo Alto at Stanford University. Heartland Racewalkers were well represented as usual and came away with a number of medals and ribbons, including two Golds (Jean B-1500 meters and Eileen McManus-5K). We also won two Silver medals (Martie and Alan in the 1500 meters) and 2 Bronze medals (Fred in the 1500 and Alan in the 5K) and a 4th place ribbon (Fred) and 8th place ribbon (BJ). Our walkers were Jean B, Tom Y (in the 90-94 division), Floyd and Martie Delon. Fred Adams, Alan Poisner, Julie Haller, BJ Thornburg. A larger than usual number of walkers was disqualified in the two races and the race director gave a tutorial on Sunday a day before the 1500 meter race. That helped several of our walkers who survived the second race at Stanford.

We met later in the month and had reports from the National Jr and Sr Olympics, including videos and pics. Thanks to Jerry Thornburg and Keith Masterson for the video and to Forrest for the tutoring so our camera operators could use our club camera to record our members at the National Games.

At our Sept. 5 meeting, we viewed video on racewalking judging and technique and I explained the rules about judging. Fred and Alan are the only members of our club who have experience in both racing and judging-it is not easy. A major annual event occurred on Sept. 11 when our club entered two teams of 10 in the Patriots Day Run. This is a 9 hour 11 minute race that we did in relay fashion which raised funds for the Salvation Army and is a major activity in Olathe honoring our service men and women and first responders to emergencies around the country. Once again the Perpetual Pedestrians nosed out the Avengers for the team 1st place award. Special thanks go to Nancy Perih for coming in from Topeka, Chuck Zarrelli for helping out when Alan was temporarily absent, and Bo Kremer for some early help. This event has been such a big success that the organizers are going to have to move it to a larger venue next year, rumored to be near the Great Mall in Olathe. On Sept. 27 the Kansas Senior Olympics were held in Topeka and Julie Haller, Martie and Floyd Delon, Fred Adams, Alan Poisner and Tom Young all won Gold or Silver Medals, keeping HRW at the forefront of racewalking in Kansas and the Midwest.

Our October meeting was our annual Be-A-Walker 5K in Roe Park. We had 19 members plus guests. Awards were given to the top three for predictions (Vijaya Dandi, Tom Young and Denise Donaldson). Jean B received a medal for the best age-adjusted time (85%).

There were several races in October where our senior members took medals in races without walking divisions. This included the Cure SMA 5K where Martie and Trudy took 1st and 2nd and Floyd took 2nd in the 75+ division, Abby's Run for the Heart 5K where Alan took 1st in the 70+ division; and the Waddell & Reed 5k where Alan took 1st in the 75+ division. It helps our PR in the KC Metro for others to see someone walking faster than they can run.

At our November club meeting Carol Goslin and Mark Landry spoke about their 50-state marathon achievements (very impressive). Tom Young told us about his Texas racing adventures and Forrest Weddle set up a video of our Be-A-Walker. Carol and Mark had the honor of cutting their special recognition cake, avoiding their own decapitation.

There were a couple of races in November with and without walking divisions. The Cliff Hanger had 7 racers and 2 volunteers. We won awards in both the racewalking division and in some age-divisions for the runners, although we all walked.

Other races with walking divisions included the Gobbler Grind 5K and half-marathon. This was held on Nov. 22 and the top walkers in the 5K were Lakshmi and Santosh Dandi. The top walkers in the half-marathon were Eileen McManus and Alan Poisner. Other walkers were Phil Jacobs, Floyd Delon, Tom Young and Leslie Votaw in the 5K, and BJ Thornburg and Martha McCarter in the half-marathon. Carol Goslin and Mark Landry did the marathon. They just can't seem to get that difficult challenge out of their system. Carol came in first in her age group.

On Thanksgiving Day in Sacramento, Alan took first in the 75-79 division in the 5K (only one other competitor) but there were 30,000 walkers and runners in the combined 10K and 5K. This is the 5th year that I have done one or the other of these races in order to join my kids and grandkids for Thanksgiving.

Thanks to previous year's board: I want to thank the 2009 board for their efforts behind the scenes that other members do not see: Ruth & Forrest Weddle, Kathy Dockter and Moe Lago. We welcome incoming board members: Floyd Delon, Pamela Felton and Peg Armstrong (repeat terms) and Leah Luckeroth, returning member) and Chuck Zarrelli a new board member

I also want to thank the officers who have spent a lot of years serving the club:

• Secretary; Sarah Justice beginning her 7th year
• Treasurer: Tom Oakes beginning his 4th year
• Vice President: Floyd Delon (first year as officer; many years as board member)
• Clinic Director Fred Adams: beginning his 9th year
• Historian and Assistant Clinic Director: Jean Brunnenkant 12th year as historian.