and women! Here is this week’s Safari Email
Excuses, Excuses, the tabloid editor is full of them!!! Because of the distance of the Kalamazoo to Battle Creek course, it was not possible to generate a one page course map on the usual software. Instead we are providing detailed Directions courtesy of Gale Fischer.(Please print these) and a map of the course can be found at the USATF Website at the Kalamazoo to Battle Creek Run link. You can zoom in or out to view detail, and print off the section of the map you are viewing.
David Thierjung once again set another PR! David joined over 17,000 other runners at the SunTrust Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon. He ran a 1:56 to break his former PR set just a week earlier. Also live on the scene was jungle stray Peter Gower who came in with a strong 1:49. Congratulations Peter and David!
Steve Downard skipped Gull Lake for Grape Lake last Saturday’s Grape Lake 5k. Steve took 3rd in his competitive age division with a speedy 17:59. His seven year old son Kyle won his age division, as did his wife Trish rounding out the Downard family trio!
How could it be possible? It appears as though Jeff and Lisa Cavanaugh ran the 8:00 am Grape Lake 5k then turned around and ran the 9:00 am Livestrong 5k! An investigation is underway to determine how quickly one can drive from Paw Paw to Portage. Jeff took 3rd and 2nd in his age division, and Lisa took 2nd and 1st in her age division, respectively. This comes as no surprise, but track coach Joe Hulsebus placed 1st in his age division! Congratulations to all our Safari Grape Lake and Livestrong finishers!
One of our Safari Stars enjoyed a brush..... and a run with fame and inspiration! This came in from the Safari’s Stephanie Sabin:
“One of the highlights this year at our company’s annual wellness kickoff was having Sarah Reinertsen (http://alwaystri.net/) as our keynote speaker. Knowing her story since 2004, I suggested that we consider Sarah as the keynote speaker for the event. To make a long story short, she was secured as the speaker for our August 28th event. A small group of us also had the opportunity to take her to lunch. Sarah is an amazing athlete and person. In 2005, Sarah became the first female with a prosthetic leg to complete the Hawaii Ironman triathlon and was featured in the Ironman coverage in both 2004 and 2005. She has been featured on the cover of Runner’s World, Triathlete, and MAX Fitness magazines. Sarah is a 2006 ESPY winner and was on CBS’s Amazing Race 10. Her accomplishments are endless. While at lunch we were discussing her training while on the road traveling to speaking engagements and other events. She mentioned she needed to take a run that afternoon after our lunch. I offered to accompany her on her run that afternoon if she was willing to wait until I left work. She AGREED!! I mapped us a route around Reeds Lake in East GR and we were able to put in an awesome 4 mile run around the lake that evening. It was an incredible experience and she was recognized by several other cyclists and runners while we were there.”
This past weekend Stephanie participated in the inaugural Boyne Mountain Triathlon – Duathlon. It was a scenic and small event held at the Boyne Mountain Golf Course/Deer Lake. She was able to capture the overall winner title (both male & female) with a final time of 1:25:59!
Stephanie reports,
“This is a first for me, so I’m pretty darn excited! The run portions of the duathlons are my strong point … I couldn’t have done it without the amazing support and workouts that I have experienced while participating in Summer Safari! This was my 4th and final duathlon of the 2007 season. I am now looking forward to the 2008 season.”
Thank you Stephanie for sharing! Have a story for Paw Prints, Hoof Tracks and Tales? Please DO share! We love to hear your stories! As a side note, Jennifer Kitchen has been unofficially nominated for this year’s unofficial Safari Spirit award!!! It is also rumored that we may have skipped an edition of Paw Print's Hoof Tracks and Tales, but we'll make up for it!
Stay tuned for the full report on Dances with Dirt and learn how our Safari-connected dirt teams fared in the next edition of Paw Prints Hoof Tracks and Tales.
