Let's see if we can fill the Red Moose Lodge!  Now is the best time to book your stay for the WRC Half-Marathon & 30K.   Call 801-745-6667 and ask for the special runners' rate for those two races as well for the Ogden Marathon. 

Spring is coming, we think anyway.  Despite some crazy storms we've had the last couple of months, the temperature has been getting warmer, the air has been cleaner and the running world is coming out of hibernation.  The Buffalo Run is only three weeks away, the Salt Lake and Ogden Marathons are just around the corner and before you know it Memorial Day will be here.  There's a ton of great races coming up too; Utah has become a destination spot for marathon racing.  Many runners are hitting the track and working on the speed in an effort to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  Good thing too because qualifying for Boston and actually getting into the race is going to get tougher.  The 2011 Boston Marathon is completely sold out.  To qualify for the 2012 race, you need to hit your qualifying mark (no more :59 second cushion) but the faster your qualifying time increases your chances of getting into the first wave of approved registrants -- the fastest runners are allowed to register first, then the next fastest and so on until the race fills.  In 2013, all the qualifying marks will decrease by five minutes, so if you were waiting to get older to qualify, hopefully you're getting older and faster.  For all the Boston qualifying standards, please visit http://www.baa.org/Races/Boston-Marathon/Participant-Information/Qualifying.aspx

Jason Blackham will need to run a 3:15 marathon and Merrilee Blackham will need to run a 3:40 marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but last year at the Boston Marathon, Jason clocked in at 3 hours and Merrilee was right on his heels at 3:08 -- amazing.  Boston is definitely their race.  Jason is an MD at the Calton-Harrison Clinic at McKay Dee Hospital and Sports Medicine Clinic.  Jason specializes in non-surgical sports medicine, overuse injuries, endurance medicine and treats bone, joint, muscle and tendon injuries.  Jason puts his knowledge to practical use; he competes and supports many of Utah's local running events.  Jason and the other doctors at the Calton-Harrison Clinic have been very supportive of the Winter Racing Circuit; the WRC would be a series of fun-runs without their support.  Jason is also on the experts' panel blog at www.utahrunning.com; there's loads of great information there.

In 2009 Merrilee was 2^nd overall in the women's final cumulative results of the Winter Racing Circuit.  She went on to run a 3:11 Ogden Marathon, a 3:08 Boston Marathon and last October ran a 3:00:17 St. George Marathon -- hmmm, maybe there is something to running all these hills J My money says she'll break the 3 hour mark at the next marathon.  Overall Women's Merrilee is in 2^nd place in the 2011 WRC; we're all excited to see how the rest of her year pans out. 

Jason & Merrilee are great ambassadors to the sport, we're all fortunate to have them in our community.  They are also our March Runner Spotlights; you can read all about them at www.stridersrunning.com 

The Winter Racing Circuit 10 miler is this Saturday, March 12 at 8:00am at the Dee Events Center at Weber State University.  If you're registered, packet pick-up will be Thursday & Friday at STRIDERS from 10am-7pm.  If you're not registered you can still get into the race by registering at STRIDERS or the morning of the race at the Dee Center.  The 10 mile course is awesome; we should all run it at least once a year just to make every other race this year seem easy.  Please call or write if you have any questions.

The WRC 10 miler is our St. Patrick's Day Race, so keeping with tradition, here's a little Irish wit to get you in the mood:
Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend Finney.

"Did you see the paper?" asked Gallagher. "They say I died!!"
"Yes, I saw it!" replied Finney. "...Where ya callin' from?"

Okay, one more I want to dedicate to my tax collector:

I met a man the other day named Flanagan and I said, 'You're a happy man.'
He said, 'I am.'

I said, 'Why?'

'Well,' he said, 'the Income Tax people have been after me for 20 years, driving me mad, to get money out of me, driving me crazy with worry. But, this morning I got a letter from them and it said: FINAL NOTICE.'

'Thank God,' he said, 'I won't be hearing from them again.' 

The 2011 STRIDERS Irish shirts are printed and in stock, they're my best creation yet (other than my kids of course) but we only printed 50 women's and 50 men's shirts, so once they're gone, that's all folks. 

If you're getting eager to run some trails there are a couple of good "dirt" races coming up.  The 2011 Buffalo Run is on March 26^th at Antelope Island.  You can run either 25K, 50K, 50M or 100Miles with the buffalo.  Registration is technically closed, but with the right amount of persuasion dosed with a pinch of bull-pucky, you may be able to get in.  All the details at www.buffalorun.org

The Northern Utah Trail Series, or NUTS (www.northernutahtrailseries.com) will officially kick-off with the Buffalo Run, but the next race is the Gib Wallace Trail 10K on April 9^th at 9am at Mt. Ogden Park (top of 32^nd Street).  Gib Wallace designed and built much of the trail network on the Ogden bench.  Many of the great trails we enjoy we owe to him.  The 10K NUTS race is in memory of Gib; proceeds will benefit Weber Pathways.  Weber Pathways maintains the current trails in addition to building more trails in Weber County (www.weberpathways.org).  Registration is available at STRIDERS or follow the NUTS link for online registration and all the details. 

Last year we were able to raise a nice chunk of change for our favorite children's charity, NO MORE VICTIMS with the Memorial Day Classic Half-Marathon, 5K & Kids Mile.  We'll be back at it again in 2011 on Memorial Day, May 30^th for a re-run of a very important event for us.  Registration is now open at Striders or www.stridersrunning.com 

Morgan has a marathon!  Here are some of the details:

Come make your mark in the Inaugural Morgan Valley Marathon, Half Marathon or 5K on Saturday July 30th 2011! This is the one you've been waiting for!  Located in the mountains just 20 miles out of Ogden up Weber Canyon (I-84).

The course loops through the beautiful Morgan Valley; beginning and ending at the Morgan County Fairgrounds. MVM has everything you want in a race: beautiful scenery, a gentle (not too hilly) course, happy- helpful volunteers, great prizes and the most awesome schwag bag ever! Not to mention the cool finishers medal and tech shirt! Don't miss out on this one!  For more information and to register visit www.morganmarathon.com

Registration for the BAIRGUTSMAN is now open!  Registration forms are available at www.stridersrunning.com, you can also register at STRIDERS or online at www.strideracing.com What is the BAIRGUTSMAN you say?  The GUTSMAN is a chopped down version of a mountain race.  There are no cheerleaders along the course; there aren't aid stations, bathrooms, photographers, and GU or pace groups.  The race will start and you're on your own until you get to the top of a big hill and then half way down Farmington Canyon.  It's just you battling the elements; the elements being gravity, water, heat, rocks, really big rocks, sticks, really big sticks, ferns, spiders, snakes, a few angry bees and maybe a hungry mountain lion.  You're probably going to get cut, stung and scrapped up a bit, but it's all in good fun.  There have been no documented "deaths" during the GUTSMAN, but we're still looking for a few people from the 1987 race.  The mantra from gutsman runners is CONQUER THYSELF; it takes guts, man.  The day of reckoning is August 6^th. 

For a full list of Utah running events, be sure to visit www.utahrunning.com

Health and a long life to you.
Land without rent to you.
A child every year to you.
And if you can't go to heaven,
May you at least die in Utah