News

This was the 10th year that HRW participated in the Brew to Brew 43-mile Relay from KC to Lawrence. There were close to 3,000 individuals who ran/walked all or part of the way. This year, as in 2008, HRW had the two teams: the Walking Warriors (WW-Mark Landry, Captain) and the Perpetual Pedestrians (PP-Alan Poisner, Captain). The weather was excellent, unlike the freezing rain and blowing wind in 2009. Both teams had faster age- and gender-adjusted times than the 2009 team.

We had 4 rookies (Barb Schwartz, Lynn Gentleman, Chuck Zarrelli and Fred Adams) and 6 veterans (Mark Landry, Phil Jacobs, Alan Poisner, Nancy Perih, BJ Thornburg and Raj Dandi). We all gathered in front of the Boulevard Brewery on Southwest Blvd. about 5:40 am for group pictures and to load our two cars. Each team sent one walker at a time on the route (much of it along the Kaw River levee) while the others rode to the next exchange point. Each person walked 2.5-5.8 miles and then did it again after about a 1-4 hour interval.

After almost 10 hours, the teams finished very close to Alan's pre-race predictions: WW: predicted=581; finished 586; PP: predicted=580; finished 578 min. These 5-min and 2-min differences are really close considering all of the variables in the race (hills, temperature, rookies vs veterans, wrong mileages, etc.), but those who have done the Brew to Brew in the past know that Alan's predictions have been very close over the years. A summary of HRW's experience in the Brew to Brew Relay in the last 10 years are shown in the preceding News Item. PP not only came in first in the walking division, but also beat 10 running teams in the age- and gender-based ranking, That always looks good when the KC Track Club posts the results. Note that everyone who took part and challenged themselves was a winner, especially our rookies.

The most unusual training method was used by Mark Landry who walked the Olathe Marathon (26.2 miles) the day before the relay. He indicated that he might not use that method next year.

We thank Tom Oakes for once again serving as a volunteer-and making some great peanut butter sandwiches for the solo runners. Thanks also to Mark and Phil for supplying the cars and doing most of the driving.

As in the past, both teams celebrated afterwards with a feast at the Mad Greek's restaurant in Lawrence and were joined by Tom Oakes, Jerry Thornburg and Chuck's friend Paula.

Check other links on our homepage (Pictures and Results)

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/racewalker/sets/72157623892486988/

Results: http://heartlandracewalkers.com/results.php

You might want to try this exciting event next year.