Home Front Meet in 2010, Ann Trason, and More

Post date: Nov 21, 2012 6:40:29 AM

October 2, 2010

Plus Nikhil P.R.'s in the 5k by TWO MINUTES

It was a good day for running in Richmond. A bit cold for spectators but just right for runners, and the Raptors took advantage of the conditions to all have great races. In the 5K, Nolan led the whole way and won by an astounding margin. He finished, got his breath, walked over to the snack area and got an orange slice, sauntered back and the second place runner stillhad not appeared around the last curve which must have been 100 yards from the finish line! I know I overuse the word, but it was awesome.

Nolan, all alone, wins the 5k.

Following Nolan was his Dad, John who won his age division and barely missed breaking 20 minutes for the 5K. John, as I mentioned to him, may have to find more time in his mondo-busy schedule for more training as he is getting seriously fast.

John finishes the 5k just missing dipping below 20 minutes. Next time!

Behind John came Nikhil and Annabel. Annabel paced Nikhil to a spectacular new PR for the 5K--25:39! To put Nikhil's meteoric rise in perspective, at the beginning of the year Kim ran with Nikhil in his first 5K simply because we were not sure he could finish the race! Now he is flying!

Nikhil and Annabel finish.

Annabel won her age group yet again. Last time she won $25 worth of bread. This time she got a hat! She can open her own store pretty soon!

Annabel sports her medal and winner's hat. Nikhil sports his shiny new PR and new down jacket and hat.

In the 10K, Sarah ran one of her best races of the year, finishing way under an hour and not missing by that much placing in her age division.

The winning family! If they keep going to Raptors races they are going to have a wide choice of Christmas card pictures!

As John and Sarah had told us, this race is not only fun to run but has shopping benefits as well. Mountain Hardware opens up their closed-to-the-public wholesale store for those who run the Homefront race. There was some good stuff in there at killer prices. Laura and Annabel took advantage of the deals and got some really cool stuff. But Keshav took shopping to a new level, getting a ton of stuff he needed and saving a bundle to boot!

Keshav and Nikhil show off their loot and Annabel sports yet another dynamite hat!

Another fun Raptor morning. I think we are getting to the point that competitors are not all that happy to see us, even though we are all charming as can be!

Raptors work their tails off at Ann Trason's house.

October 10, 2010

Since many of our kids had meets coming up, we took a day off from running and worked even harder, helping Ann Trason and her husband Carl, clean up the equipment from the the trail marathon they had put on yesterday All of our Raptors kids (and even Kim and I!) worked hard and Ann was extremely impressed with everyone in the club and very appreciative. This bodes well for her perhaps coming to a workout or maybe (would this be cool?) leading a Raptors road run.

Every Raptor got his/her picture taken with Ann, who was holding her trophy for first place in the Western States 100. I will take a disc to the photo shop tomorrow, have the pics nicely printed out and Ann will personally autograph each one so everyone will have a souvenir of the day. This may take a week or two but we will get it done! Great work everyone and for hard work it was pretty fun. We also got a ton of loot! We have Gu and Gu "chomps" and enough Gu "Electrolyte Brew" to last us for like two seasons!

Raptors Eliana and Max tear it UP at Brandeis/Head Royce/Burke XC meet

Brandeis was up against Head Royce and Burke in the girls race and a very tough Town team for the boys. Sadly Brandeis had only 3 girls and 4 boys today, but Max, Eliana, and the other 6th grade girl, Elana, showed terrific leadership, taking turns calling stretches and showing the other kids (all 5th graders) the starting drill before the coach arrived. In the race, Eliana finished 7th(!) and the other two girls came in strong at 15th and 16th. (Rebecca, the 5th grade girl who came in right behind Elana, got Max’s award for really leaving it all on the track—I saw her about a quarter mile before the end and honestly wondered whether she could run the rest of the way, but she sprinted in at the end.)

Max was right up front and center at the start, but the Town boys pulled a sort of blocking move, going out en masse and using their arms to block others from passing. Max got mad and then got even, staying with them until they let down their guard and then sprinting around a bunch of them. He ran really hard and came in first for his team, finishing 10th overall. (Particularly impressive when you saw what a strong team Town has—they probably had 7 or 8 kids in the top 10, a few of them SUPER fast.)

Way to go Eliana and Max!

Awesome Raptors BBQ in Albany.

August 22, 2010

Following close on the heels of last week's fantastic workout/BBQ in Benicia last Sunday, the Raptors again broke out the grill and got down to serious cooking and eating. Nikhil was already the designated hamburger griller but now that he has received coaching from my son EO on seasoning and BBQ sauce application I think he is our go-to guy on the grill until he renounces the duty.

Carefully seasoned burgers, frying strawberries and a hot dog.

Kris and Gabe were also very professional in the hot dog prep task and Annabel has cornered the "fruit grilling" job. If you are reading this and you are not a Raptor yet, you are missing some god workouts and races and some great eatin'!

Nikhil applies the sauce and Gabe grills away.