Brew to Brew 2012
HRW again had two teams with the same names and captains in the 2012 version of the Brew to Brew Relay (44.4-miles) that started at the Boulevard Brewery in KC and ended in Lawrence a few blocks from the Free-state Brewery: Perpetual Pedestrians (PP) and the Walking Warriors (WW). The morning start (6:00 am) was cool and the skies were overcast when our journey started. We were not as accurate in our pre-race predictions this year because the predictions last year were almost perfect (see results from 2011). We had a national champion racewalker in the 55-59 division on one of our teams this year. Dave Couts came in from St. Louis and walked some very fast legs. In fact, the combined net times for our two teams were the fastest since 2006. This was partly because of the speedy legs of Dave and partly because our handicap points are getting larger. A record was set when Alan wore only one layer of clothing (that can be compared to the 8 layers he wore in 2007). But the one layer was probably too much because the heat almost stopped him on the last leg when the temperature was 87 degrees. He eventually recovered thanks to some potato chips supplied by Nancy Perih.
We had 8 veterans this year (Alan Poisner, Mark Landry, Phil Jacobs, Susan Rico, Raj Dandi, Lakshmi Dandi, Nancy Perih, and Chuck Zarrelli) and 2 rookies (John Haynes and Dave Couts-a ringer). Nancy Perih came in again from Topeka. There were over 4,000 runners who participated in this unique event that raised $50,000 for the cause-Cystic Fibrosis research and treatment. Each walker did two relay legs, each being 2.6-5.6 miles. The race was scored with age- and gender-based handicaps. WW finished 38 min before PP but after the handicaps were factored in, the net times were WWW: 8:07 and PP: 7:57. Both of these net times were faster than those of a number of running teams (see Results).
Congratulations to all of these HRW members who competed in this 12th year of our club's participation. Also, thanks to Tom Oakes who once again served as a volunteer at one of the exchange points. Pictures from this event can be found at the PICTURES link on our homepage (click on the PICTURES link, then the SETS and then on the Brew to Brew set). Captions can be seen by clicking on the individual pictures or just the NEXT link (scrolling down to read captions). Results will be posted to the RESULTS link.