Last year, a few of our members participated in the marathon and half marathon, after entering, but this year, we opted to put together 4 relay teams: a men’s team, a mixed team and 2 women’s teams.

But, before a race can happen, there has to be volunteers to put the race together, and SCE came together in a large part for that.  Elise is a committee member on Surfers Path Marathon & Capitola Half Marathon, and she recruited a few members to do race neighborhood notification a few weeks prior to the event as well as SCE members to work the registration/bib pick up table at the Expo the day before the event.  In return, SCE received free registration for all relay teams, as well as a number of free entries to next year’s event.

The half marathon relay started at 7:00am at the Boardwalk, along with both the marathon & half marathon races.  Being as it was a small event (1800), there wasn’t a big problem with all three events starting at the same time.  Our runners were up bright and early, and the first half of the relay runners were ready to go.

Charmin, Dan, Marty & Hillary at the start

It was a quick start and then they were off.

The start

Marty running into the relay transition

Charmin headed into the relay transition

And just like that, less than 50 minutes later all of our relay teams were onto the second leg.

Rebecca, Benoit, Meg & Leslie at the relay transition

Dan & Benoit were strongly in first place for the relay at this point (and therefore first place for the men’s division)

Benoit sprinting into the finish

Rebecca & Marty were right behind them, in third place overall, and first placed for the mixed relay.

Rebecca striding into the sandy finish

Just behind them were Leslie & Charmin, who took second in the women’s relay (behind two of our speedy friends Michelle & Margaret and another unknown team of 1 person…)

Leslie finishing strong on the beach

And our final team was Meg & Hillary, who came in 3rd place women’s relay without actually racing the event.  Imagine what would’ve happened if they had raced!

Meg coming into the finish strong

It was definitely a great day for SCE, two 1st places and very respectable 2nd & 3rd places behind some incredible competition.

The SCE Relay teams at the finish

And of course, a shot with the fabulous Laura who is our incredible photographer (and responsible for all photos in this post), and Elise, the fearless volunteer.

Hillary, Laura, Meg & Elise

But, contrary to common thought, we’re not all about winning and seriousness, we have fun too:

Charmin & Leslie goofin’ off

What a great weekend for racing, volunteering and just having fun as a team!

Thanks to all who came out!

We are runners. We don’t have to run fast, or run marathons to call ourselves a runner. A mile is a mile, and 26.2 is still a marathon regardless of the time. Runners are a community. We chase one another, we cheer for one another, and we support one another. At no time in running history have we needed to do the latter more than right now. Therefore, on Saturday we will do just that.

Leaving from Verve Coffee on Seabright, we will head out for the Memorial Run for Boston. The run will be broken into two phases. At 7:15 a group will leave with the goal of getting in 5.5 miles. We will then return to Verve at 8:00 am to pick up any runners that would like a shorter run. Total distance will be 11-12 miles. Please wear Boston gear if you have it, and if not, please wear the trademark blue and yellow.

You can RSVP on facebook.

Tell your friends!

Like all of the city, SCE was devastated by the tragic loss of Santa Cruz Police Department’s Sergeant Loran “Butch” Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler. Keeping that in mind, 100% of the entry fees collected at the April 14 race will go to the Butler/Baker Scholarship Fund. Continuing with the SCE spirit of giving back, we are giving 100% of entry fees to the Butler/Baker Scholarship Fund. To honor the officers that lost their lives in the line of duty, be ready to toe the line with a MINIMUM donation amount of $10 payable to “City of Santa Cruz Baker/Butler Scholarship Fund.” We are happy to accept cash, but a check is preferred.

The race begins at 8:30 AM outside the Seymour Long Marine Lab. Please arrive no later than 8:15 to sign a waiver, hand over your $$$, and get course directions. The race begins at the whale outside the Marine Lab. The course hugs the coast and ends just past the whale at the Natural History Museum, ending on the Seabright Beach. Join us for the after party at the Harbor Cafe.

First up was the Hellyer Races on Saturday, March 2.  Jennifer Willoughby and Rebecca Doty headed over the hill to participate in the half marathon and 5k, respectively.

Our speedy ladies ran fast and hard, and represented SCE well.  Rebecca Doty, in her first race in almost a year, managed to dominate in the 5k, and was the first female OA with a time of 20:11!

Jennifer Willoughby followed suit, also rocking Hellyer by getting a killer 13.1 time of 1:33:24, coming 2nd in her AG and 3rd female OA.  What a way to start the weekend off!

Way to go ladies — you rocked it at Hellyer!!

Then a little further north on Sunday, March 3, three of our ladies toed the line of the Napa Valley Marathon.  Samantha Forde, Leslie Haverstock and Kim Thomas put their months of training down on the pavement, and it was a great day for these SCE ladies.

Samantha Forde was the first across the finishline with the incredible time of 3:08:41.  She finished 2nd in her AG and was 8th female overall!  Next Kim Thomas crossed the finisheline with an incredible PR!  She finished in 3:17:04, was 3rd in her AG and 17th female overall!  Leslie Haverstock, was just behind Kim and finished in 3:21:55, 2nd in her AG and 21st female overall!

Leslie and Kim at Napa Valley Marathon

Yes that’s right — three BQ finishing times!!!

Leslie, Sam and Kim post-marathon

What a great way to start of March for these fabulous five SCE ladies!  Its been a fun month of running so far — and its not even half over!

Kim and Meg at Whale 2 Whale during Marathon Training!

Leslie and Sam at Kaiser Half Marathon in SF during Marathon Training!

At Napa Valley, Samantha Forde, Leslie Haverstock and Kim Thomas will be giving it their all on Sunday, March 3, representing their hard months of training and SCE in beautiful wine country.  This isn’t the first (nor last) marathon for any of these ladies, but for Leslie, its her first time running Napa, and the Napa Valley Marathon took note of this and her incredible life and running outlook, and featured her in their latest press release:

“NVM entrant Leslie Haverstock (38, Santa Cruz, Calif.) is a veteran Special Education teacher of 16 years for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Her students are six to eight years old.

“I run because I can,” Haverstock said. “My students have severe physical and cognitive disabilities. They would love to know how it feels to walk let alone run.”

Haverstock says she ran in high school, and a bit in college, but didn’t start running faithfully until 2004 when she set her sights on the Chicago Marathon. She dedicated that first marathon to Alex, one of her students who diligently checked in with her about her progress every Monday after her long weekend training runs. “Someday, I’m going to run a marathon, too,” Alex told his teacher. He subsequently participated in several 5K races in a motorized wheelchair before passing away.

Haverstock has now participated in numerous marathons, at least one per year. She continued: “When I think the training gets hard, or something hurts, I look at my students. They were not given strong limbs and the abilities to move about freely. Why would I take it for granted or complain that I had to go run? For these reasons, I run because I can. I’m very blessed.””

It’s a good reminder to not take for granted the ability to run, and to be thankful everyday that we can put one foot down after another — and not get down on ourselves after a tough run or workout.  With that in mind, and knowing that they can run (and run pretty darn fast), we look forward to seeing Sam, Leslie and Kim do at NVM (rumor has it they’ve been training hard!) and reporting back in just a few short weeks!

Then on 3/17, Meg Gudgeirsson will be heading south to LA to run her 3rd marathon (2nd in 4 months).  She’s been racking up the miles, and doing lots of speed work this past training cycle.  She’s been definitely taking advantage of her ability to run this 2013 (and has run at least a few miles every day so far this year!!!) and its going to be really exciting to watch all of her hard work come to fruition!

With all this marathon madness and the 2013 racing season getting started, that means that there are plenty of runs going on – races, training and fun runs.  In light of the Napa Valley Marathon press release featuring Leslie and her incredible outlook on running, we leave you with the following challenge:

Before your next tough run (either a speed workout, a long run or one you just don’t really want to do), remind yourself that you are blessed to be able to run.  And then, make that run a good one — no matter what else is going on — because all that really matters is that you can run, and not everyone can say that.

At the Kaiser Half, four SCE runners showed what they can do. Running together, Leslie Schaffer-Haverstock and Samantha Forde finished at 1:33:44 and 1:33:45, respectively. Leslie took 14th in her age group, while Sam took 7th in hers. This was a PR for Leslie! Julie Stockwell finished at 1:36:39, taking 34th in her age group. And representing the SCE guys, Daniel Wirls destroyed the competition with a finishing time of 1:22:18, taking 1st in his age group and 79th overall. Wow!

Leslie and Sam looking strong at the Kaiser Half

Julie dominating the Kaiser Half course

Closer to home, SCE showed Santa Cruz what it’s all about at the annual Super Bowl 10k. SCE coach and runner Aaron Jacobsen took the overall win (and of course 1st in his age group) with a speedy finishing time of 34:01. Finishing just 25 seconds later, Julian Sunn took 3rd overall and first in his age group. Josh Mader took 5th in his age group with a time of 42:52. Meg Gudgeirsson scored a new PR, 2nd in her age group, and 4th overall woman, finishing at 45:28. And last, but definitely not least, Elise Nelson ran the 10k in 46:06, also achieving a new PR and taking 3rd in her age group.

Aaron coming in strong at the finish

Julian outran the competition

After the race!

Meg coming in at the finish (and showing some Niners pride!)

Elise looking speedy!

What a great weekend for Santa Cruz Endurance! Congrats to all on their amazing runs and to those who secured some new personal records!

About a dozen Santa Cruz Endurance and other Santa Cruz area runners gathered to run the 6 miles from the Whale at the Seymour Marine Biology Lab to the Whale off East Cliff in the Seabright area.

In an effort to be more involved and active in the community, we collected canned goods as a part of the race entry.  And, rumor  has it, even team members who were unable to make it dropped of cans before the event to help us meet our community service goals for the year.

Just after 8:30, the runners were off, heading down the coast for a beautiful 6, fast miles.

We even had a lead cyclist/pack mule in SCE director Jeremy, who followed along our cyclists and picked up their extra jackets as the sun got stronger.

It was definitely quite a fun morning, and there were smiles all around…

Kim & Meg — SCE twins!

Jen & Sam, who joined us for part of their long run!

The lovely Hallie, kicking it on West Cliff

Benoit & Dan, leading the pack

We had a great turnout, and refueled post-run with a delicious brunch at Harbor Cafe.  We already started planning the next Whale to Whale time trial, which will be happening at the end of March/early April — so stay tuned!  We hope to have more members of SCE and the Santa Cruz community join us in testing out their fitness and contributing to our canned food drive efforts!

The Whale to Whale January 27, 2013 Crew at the “Finish Line”

Looking to join SCE on one of its runs or check out the group? Join us for our next Whale to Whale event.
Whale to Whale is 6 mile run to test your fitness and speed. The run begins at the Whale at Long Marine Lab and ends at the Whale at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum. The event costs $10 and a can of food to donate to our community. This is also a great time to join SCE! You can check out all the details and RSVP at our Facebook event page.

SCE hopes that you are starting your year out with some running, cycling, and/or swimming!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM
SANTA CRUZ ENDURANCE!!

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We are fit.  We are fast. But we are also generously kind people that care about others.  This holiday season, Santa Cruz Endurance (SCE) adopted two local families in need.

At the start of this activity, I decided I would just put a feeler out there to see what kind of response I would get.  I was overwhelmed and touched by how amazing and supportive this team was.  It was clear by the number of people initially interested that SCE could sponsor not one but TWO families.  So, I called the “Volunteer Center- Adopt a Family Project” and let them know we wanted to help.  They gave us two very lovely families  in need of a little happiness. Individually we all set out to purchase gifts for the families and on December 8th, the gift collection took place at our annual SCE Holiday Party.

Aaron and I took the HUGE MOUNTAIN of GIFTS (WOW!) home with us and I set out to wrap them almost all of them (a few were wrapped already)!  I love wrapping, making handmade bows and writing out tags – so for me, this was awesome!  Those little toys were so cute, the Barbies brought back memories and the baby clothes?  SO precious! After all was wrapped and ready to go, I made arrangements to deliver the gifts with each family.  For this part, I called on my good friend and loyal SCE member, Laura! Together, we set out to be the bearers of good cheer!

Our first family was a young couple who had VERY recently given birth to a little baby girl.  She was two months premature and only weighed 2.2 lbs!! Both mommy and baby Caliana spent many weeks in the hospital but the good news is that they are both at home getting stronger everyday – Cali even weighs 5 lbs now!  We delivered an assortment of blankets, towels, diapers, baby clothes, baby toys, and sweatshirts, along with bountiful gift cards for local grocery stores.

SCE’s second family was a single mom with two little girls, Camila (age 3) and Magaly (age 6).  Living in a one bedroom apartment, Mom Cecilia warmly invited us into her home that was decorated quite cheerfully with hand made christmas decorations by the girls.  They even had a mini Christmas tree! Little Camila was there and it was so great to see those big brown eyes light up with excitement at all the presents that now sat in front of her. We all chatted for a bit- in Spanish mind you, thank goodness for Laura because my Spanish is decent but in no way is it perfect. We took a few photos and wished them a Happy Holiday!

But before we left, Camila gave a Christmas/Thank you card that her and her big sister made for us.  What a sweet thank you card! Here is the translation of what was written inside: “Thank you very much for picking me and my girls out of so many possible families. May God richly bless you. From Camila, Magaly and Cecilia. Much love for everyone.”

Overall, a bit of work but a HUGE reward. It was so worth it and I hope to make this an SCE tradition. Thanks to all who participated – a big hug to Laura for helping with the deliveries and one for Aaron too for letting me turn his living room into Santa’s Workshop for a few days!

Happiest of holidays!

~Jenn

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Thanks to Jenn and all the SCE members who helped to make this possible.

Happy holidays from all of the SCE members!