FOOTNOTES September 24th, 2013
THE CAPITAL CITY ROADRUNNERS CLUB
The other Saturday morning, the Fossil, Steve Scott, he of 59 marathons, and the talk is he is going for the elusive 60th, reached me a couple of old issues of the Capital City Roadrunners Newsletter. What a journey back in time.
For those of you who perhaps don't know, expecially you younger runners, the C.C.R.R. has been around for a while. The C.C.R.R. Club was first formed in 1983, and so for 30 years, the Club has offered two club runs - a mid-week Wednesday evening run, that departs the LBR gym at 5:30pm and on Saturday morning, again at the LBR gym at 8:30am. We have always had someone there regardless of the weather, it doesn't matter if it is -30 or +30, the C.C.R.R. has always had a club run, where only the tough turn out. We are the Capital City Road Runners, which means we run outdoors!
As I peruse these few issues of the first Footnotes, I have here the very first one, Volume 1, Issue 1, entitled the Capital City Road Runners Newsletter. It would be Volume 1, Issue 3, before the Newsletter received its name FOOTNOTES - suggested by Nick Guitard. Some of you may be aware of Nick's interest in waterfalls http://waterfallsnewbrunswick.ca/ . The Club has had many editors of FOOTNOTES, where a hard copy was produced from contributions from the membership and circulated among the membership. In recent times we have moved to our online home http://www.ccrr.ca where we can reach our members via the Message Board and E-mail and even beyond to the wider running community on our Facebook page. Here is an excerpt from our first yet to be officially named Capital City Road Runners Newsletter:
"This is the first issue of our newsletter. Welcome to all members, runners and interested readers. Our club is just beginning and we want to encourage you to participate in our fun runs and other activities and to bring your ideas and enthusism with you.
The initial organization was done by Dick Mawhinney and Tim Maillet. On Feb. 1st, 1983, at a meeting at the Capital City Court Club, we selected an Executive and chose our (club) name. here are the club officers: Co-chairmen ~ Dick & Tim ~ Registrar: Wendy Beggs ~ Secretary - Ed Takacs ( sub 4 minute miler ) Fun Run Committee - John Mercer & Steve Scott ~ Newsletter Committee - June Parmigiani, Dave Prebble, and Fred Turnbull.
Our basic goal is to provide a focal point for road runners of all levels of experience. We believe that the tremendous growth in the popularity of running and jogging inn the past few years has created a situation locally whereby there is a real need for our organization. Communication about running events and training problems, sharing experiencesand socializing with other runners are some of our objectives.
With these in mind, the club plans to hold one fun run each weekend ( used to be Sunday afternoon) and group training runs. We have been splitting into two groups; one covers 2km and the other approximately 8km. As evenings gets longer ( this is March ) we may begin mid-week runs or more serious training runs."
The first issue of FOOTNOTES also carries a report from the Fun Run Committee which makes interesting reading.
"The Fun Run Committee would like to report that the weekly fun runs have been generally well attended sicne they began in early January (1983 ) of this year. Despite some fairly desperate weather conditions, both footing wise and cold and wind, a hard core group has emerged as virtually indestructible in both the shorter course and the longer ones. They've even managed to drag a few hardy individuals with them every week. We initially began our Fun Runs at the Y; however, becasue of some uncomfortableness on the part of 'Y' officials, we've moved our start and finish to the Fredericton Sports Club premises. It appears to be a somewhat more suitable location to unwind after 'HARD' winter run. In the future the Fun Run Committee will attempt to vary the courses for the runs ( there were no trails back then - ed. ) in order not to bore everyone to desth."
Some of our Members times are worth looking at. Paul Lavoie ran a half marathon in the Fredericton Heart Marathon, April 10th, 1983 in a time of 1.26.01. Paul is the Fredericton Marathon Race Director and was the first Race Director of the Fall Classic and to put his time in perspective, with that time, he would have place 11th in the Fall Classic Half Marathon.. Tim Maillet ( first co-chair ) ran a time .36. David Tree ran the full marathon in a time of 2:58.10, whci would have been good enough to place 10th in this year's running of the Fredericton Marathon.
Other noteable times: The First Fall Classic - John Cathcart 38.20, Steve Scott 39.45, Mike Stapenhurst 44.30, and the Atlantic Autumn Marathon, - half marathon, David Tree 1.09.06, Steve Scott 1.19.57 and the full marathon - John Cathcart 2.44.57. ( Don't ask about the controversy regarding this race! )
Riverview 20km - David Tree, 74.54, John Cathcart 77.11 Steve Scott 84.40, Tim Maillet 80.51 Dick Mawhinney 91.27 and in the Fredericton Five Mile Road Race August 28m, 1983, John Cathcart 28.02, Steve Scott 29.03 and Dick Mawhinney 32.31.
Anyway, its been fun recalling those early days of the club and reliving those early races where every race was a PB. Ah, those were the days my friend ......
the running rev!