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2005 Bushwhack Race Director Recap |
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December 11, 2005 Dear friends, I’ll try to present to
you my many thoughts on the Busa Bushwhack in an organized manner but
please forgive me if I forget to mention something or someone. Up until
Thursday, everything was going fine and I was just sitting back waiting
for Sunday to roll around and direct my first race. Then as the saying
goes, all hell broke loose. We received a mini-blizzard on Friday and
the trails were covered with 10 to 13 inches of snow. Although I had
trail marking crews ready for Saturday, I panicked and went out Friday
morning to mark the trail intersections in the northern side When Sunday morning rolled around it was a sunny 35 degree day and we had 32 runners sign up for the race. This was 11 over last year or a 52% increase. Of the 32 runners we had 10 from the GFRC. The weather was just like last year except for the winter wonderland. There were 21 men, 11 women and we had 17 wonderful volunteers. Jenn Fields had arrived to take some beautiful pictures and Arnie was getting quotes from runners as well as running the race. .That’s about one volunteer for every two runners. When I mentioned to the runners on Sunday morning that the race was 5.6 miles I thought I was going to have a mutiny. Many of them wanted their money’s worth (free race) and the 9.3 mile race as advertised. Of course, they had not surveyed the trails the day before as I had. I decided to give people an option. Depending on how they felt at 2.8, they could do an out and back of 5.6 or go for the 9.3. The only qualification was that they had to be at the water stop within a 35 minute cut-off time to go for the 9.3 miles. As it turned out 19 runners did the 9.3, 11 did the 5.6 and Smitty and Lisa Doherty did half roads and half trails for 6.8. Dr. Rich Busa and nurse Karin Oleski were at the 2.8 mile mark checking the runner’s pulse etc. and dispensing jelly beans, cookies, water and Gatorade. On the northern part of the course we had Winona, Mark Kulacz and Brian Schneider directing runners and removing pink tape. The injured Rich Person did double duty as the sweep runner. He cleaned the course of pink tape on parts of the northern section, all of the southern section and kept the slow runners company and on course. Back at Brophy, John Shane, Lonny Townley and Marlies Plaggenborg managed the finish line and tabulated the results. Irene Ostrow, Charlotte Shane and Ann Marie were in charge of food and Ann Marie was also doing awards and prizes. Ken Barrett helped out all around as well as working the finish line. Tom Abbott did his thing and was helping out as needed. Yours truly was out on the course keeping an eye on things and came back to Brophy to announce the names of some of the top finishers. You can see the full results at Cool Running but here are a few: Men
Women
From the feedback I’m getting from
runners, volunteers and my own observations, this race went off
beautifully. This is a race that could have been
easily cancelled. The satisfaction I felt after the race was that of a
person who had just completed his/her first marathon. I was on top of
the world. My mind is now going a mile a minute planning for next year
and what I can do better. I love the idea of a free grass roots type of
race to promote running, trail running and the Greater Framingham
Running Club. As the race gets larger (I hope) we will need more food,
more prizes and more volunteers. Please start thinking now and
throughout the year about how you can donate to the cause or have local
businesses makes donations of food or merchandise etc.
I want to thank those who helped me
plan this race, those that helped work the race, those who mark the
course, those who ran under very difficult conditions and those who
donated food, prizes and cash for making this one very fun and
successful event. Let’s do it again next year. Happy trails!!!! Barry |