In order to cover track rental and insurance expenses, we will be collecting a $10 season fee from each member participating in workouts. (It is not included in your membership fee.) Please bring $10 to your first track workout.

Laura Scala

Sandy Bunn

John Alexanderson

Thomas Connare

Catherine Haight

Congratulations to Chris and Maria Kaleta who will become a party of three in July.

Best wishes to Brenda Litzinger on her recent marriage to David Spillman.

And our best to Donna Neth and Steve O’Neill, and Marla Crouse and Erkan Baykan on their recent engagements. (Yes, that is my baby girl!)

March 6-8

1/26 Ed’s Super Bowl Warm Up 5k, Middleport, 11:30 AM

2/8 Lockport Y 10m, Lockport YMCA, 19 East Ave, 434-8887

2/23 Polar Bear 5k, Olcott Fire Company, 11:00 AM, 434-8887

2/23 Canisius Chilly Challenge 5k, 12:00PM, 675-9400, George Chernowski

3/1* The Shamrock 8k, Old First Ward Community Center, 12:00 Noon, 856-8613

3/26 Chili Party, 7:00+ (see inside)

Contact J. Moore at john.w.moore@us.abb.com, 845-0600 (W), 855-3853 (H) for additions/corrections.

Age Group: 40- 44

Personal: Married to Dave

Occupation: Sr. Sales Director Mary Kay Cosmetics

Head Coach for Canisius College Ladies Cross Country

Checkers affiliation: 7 years

Running: Since age 13

Club affiliations: Buffalo Triathlon Club; Bond Lake AC; Checkers AC

Interests: Multi Sports including Cross Country Skiing

2002 was a year of determination and destiny for Checkers’ member, Joanne York Rappl. Focus and disciplined training were the operatives for her achievements. A stellar performance at the Ironman USA in Lake Placid last July, earned Joanne a roll down entry to the Boston Marathon of Triathlons, the world triathlon championship in Kona, Hawaii this past October. Not bad, for just her fourth season as a triathlete.

Joanne’s legacy resides in middle and long distance running. "I began running competitively at age 13. School sports began at Williamsville North High School cross-country and track, followed by ECC North, Kent State (Div 1) and finally, Canisius College." That progressed and blossomed into a coaching career for Joanne. "I started coaching track at Nardin Academy for 5 years followed by ladies track and cross country coach at Canisius College." Joanne’s’ coaching has helped to produce local talent including Katie Wirth and Heather Appenheimer. "My goal has been to help them with self confidence and inspire them to their next level." Recently, her cross-country team visited Buffalo's Leonardo DaVinci High School to encourage the student athletes and support them in college decision making. The Canisius team members must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.2. "Its great to give back to the sport and the community."

A brand new phase of challenge began in 1998. "I competed in the 1998 Buffalo Triathlon and won the overall female placing." Hello multisport! "I was very successful in the Great Ohio Buckeye Half Ironman." Joanne’s training became more disciplined and structured paving the way for the ultimate challenge of a full Ironman Triathlon. "Ironman USA 2002 in Lake Placid was my first. I had a great swim on the flat water of Mirror Lake." Rain added to the drama of biking in the Adirondack Mountains. "A seven mile downhill stretch tested my nerves with speeds of 40 mph. That was followed by a graduated 10 mile uphill climb!" The marathon course was also hilly and Joanne struggled with the final 8 miles, but pushed it through to the finish. "It was a great accomplishment." She placed 4^th in her age group and qualified for a roll-down spot (only one given for women) to the Big Show in Kona. After a 2-week recovery, only 4 weeks of hard training were available.

Joanne’s conditioning program was intense. Weekly routines included long run distances of 15,18 and 20 miles; bike rides of 60 miles and (2X) 90 miles; and open water swims of 2- 3 miles. "That was highlighted by our weekly run- bike- run Brick workouts. We ran a mile, biked 12 miles and then ran 5KM at race pace."

Saturday, October 19 had arrived. It was show time and the whole world was watching. The first stage was a 2.4-mile open water swim in the salt water. "No wet suits were allowed. The swells were eight feet high and I couldn’t even see the course buoys." Joanne finished the 112-mile bike route through 85-degree heat in the lava fields and misery for the last 30 miles. "At the run transition, I felt rough and dehydrated. However, at 6 miles into the marathon I began to feel relieved as the air was cooling. I crossed the finish line feeling great!" Family and friends were there to support Joanne. She placed 20^th in her age group in a World Championship race event!

So how exciting it was, for Joanne to meet Karen Smyers (1995 Ladies Ironman Champion) at a recent Tri Club banquet and share a Sunday morning run together. "I was impressed with her positive attitude. She has had so much adversity (physically), yet continues to be a strong competitor. Karen was at Kona this year. She really loves her sport and is an inspiration for so many." Joanne, (whose PRs include 18:20 5Km and 38:08 10 Km) will target Ironman USA at Lake Placid again this year. She has placed 3^rd in her age group in the Buffalo News series for 2002 and was the 2^nd overall woman in 2000. It is apparent that Joanne loves her sport as well. Her transition into triathlons was based on determination and intensity. "It has brought me to a higher level of overall fitness."

Allen Dise 18:10 1M40-44

Thomas Dessauer 18:491M35-39

Gary Hastings 19:33 1M50-54

Peter Forrestel 19:55 3M50-54

Trey Gardner 20:07 1M30-34

Joanne York-Rappl 20:49 1F40-44

Amy Fakterowitz 21:24 2F30-34

Catherine Meyer 25:00 1 F35-39

Patricia Kunselman 25:21 1F55-59

Michelle McClellan 28:16 3F25-29

Brad Heron 1M15-19 16:41

Tom Dessauer 1M35-39 18:22

Sandy Bunn 1M45-49 20:40

Peter O'Keefe 3M45-49 21:24

Kathleen Fretthold 1F40-44 22:19

Jackie Martin 2F20-24 22:25

Joanne Cunningham 3F55-59 24:41

Sandra Hebeler 2F50-54 25:22

Shana Hill 3F20-24 26:26

Kim Chmielewicz 3F30-34 26:58

Maria Baer 3F50-54 27:20

Debbie Murphy 2F35-39 27:41

Edna Hyer 1F60-69 32:06

Main Street, Downtown Buffalo

Following the Delaware Park workout (7:00+)

For more information call 832-1006 or e-mail jcrouse@acsu.buffalo.edu

Paul Drexler 2/1

Chris Carter 2/2

Nicole Ludwa 2/2

Michelle McClellan 2/3

Fran Rowe 2/3

Catherine Meyer 2/4

Carol Michalski 2/4

Dave Rappl 2/4

Andrew Cook 2/6

Peter Palmer 2/6

Kyoko Kobayashi 2/7

Roger Niethe 2/7

Chris Kaleta 2/9

Mary Lennon 2/9

Barbara Miekarek 2/9

Holly Knop 2/10

Kathleen Yesny 2/12

Edward Derenda 2/13

Lynn Keane 2/13

Patricia Webb 2/14

Charlie Schaffstall 2/15

Kim Chmielewicz 2/16

Loretta Jacob 2/16

Joann O'Loughlin 2/16

John McCracken 2/17

Paul White 2/17

Michele Bauman 2/18

Guy George 2/18

Kenneth Gordon 2/18

Paul Pietraszewski 2/18

Robert Preskop 2/19

Glenn Quackenbush 2/20

Paul Quinn 2/21

Gary Thompson 2/22

Tom Evans 2/23

Rachel Mavis /23

Taylor Dewey 2/25

William George 2/25

John Alexanderson 2/27

Andre Lamm 2/28

Dan Brown 2/29

2/9 FLRC All-Comers Meet, Barton Hall, Cornell

2/16 Chargers All-Comers Meet, Manley Fieldhouse, Syracuse U

2/22 Kent State Tune-Up Meet, Kent, Ohio

2/23 Upstate Distance Festival, Hobart College, Geneva

3/3 Canadian Masters Champs.York University, Toronto

March 28-30 USATF Masters Champs,Boston

We have a new race director!!!!

has agreed to continue the tradition and direct the 2003 Buffalo Mile.

I would like to take this time to tell you how proud and happy I am to have had the opportunity to serve as President of the Board of Checkers AC. Now, after three, two-year terms, and many great memories, it is time for me to step down and allow another person to lead our club with a fresh, new vision of the future. While I will no longer be club president, I will continue to help out in other areas.

As in the past, we are letting you know what board positions are available this year. After those positions are filled by election at the Spring general meeting, a new President will be chosen by the new board. Information on elections are in another area of this newsletter. After all is processed, my last month as president will be in or around April.

It has been an extreme pleasure to head this club. I was honored to be the President for our 25^th anniversary. The club has grown in ways I never thought possible. I took over when there were approximately 180 members. It now it has 500+ members. Once we expanded our workouts with Coach Carroll to two outdoor track facilities, and we were written about in The Buffalo News with some very positive articles from Michael Beebe, people from around the area found that Checkers AC was a strong, fun club with great people working together, a club for all kinds of physical people.

Joan Crouse still spends endless hours putting together the area’s greatest runner’s newsletter. I will now have the time to help her more with that job. In the last few years, Checkers established its own web site thanks to Fred Kobler and Tom Donnelly, and now Brenda Lane has gracefully taken over. Those are only a few people who have helped make this club successful. There are people behind the scenes, like Mary Roll with her smiling face at track, who have come forward to volunteer their time. You have all helped me bring the club to where it is right now.

Actually, you probably will not realize that I have stepped down except that my picture and articles will no longer be on the back page of the newsletter. I still plan to take care of uniforms and help Checkers continue its great relationship with Runners Roost. I will also be at track screaming at you to run your pace or to run faster. Too bad for you, you really thought I wouldn’t be doing that anymore!

Thank you to everyone in Checkers for supporting me these past years in my races. You might have thought I was just racing for myself; but I wasn’t. I was also racing for you….. CHECKERS AC!

OH, MY ACHING FOOT!!!! On December 20^th, 2002, I had a relatively new (for this area anyway) procedure done to try to fix my chronically sore heel. It’s called Extra Corpeal Shock Wave Therapy, and it was worse than it sound’s. It’s given to any chronic inflammation, be it tennis elbow or an inflamed heel. It was done as an outpatient , and I was accompanied by a nurse, two podiatrists, and the tech from the machine manufacturer. I was given a local in my heel which numbed it, wheeled into the operating room, and told to lie as still as possible because any movement of the heel would throw off the machine. My podiatrist, Dr. Harry Zirna of Medina, a very personable and accessible doctor, assured me that the procedure would be only as uncomfortable as my foot usually is upon getting out of bed. He lied. One of the doctors held my foot dorsal flexed while the tech applied a kind of wand against my foot. Even though my foot was numb, I immediately felt the pulses, and they were right in the heart of were my foot always hurt. The procedure lasted around 21 minutes. I tried to keep still while the sound waves penetrated deep into the sorest part of my foot in a steady, constant, relentless, unyielding push to break me mentally. True to the ironman credo, I wept openly.

There are a number of criteria you must meet to be eligible, most importantly the right insurance. You can’t be obese, must have gone through therapy for at least 6 months, and must have had a cortisone shot. I explained my prejudice to cortisone, saying I could have had that first thing a year ago. The doctor wrote a nice letter to my insurance company and they ok’d the procedure without my first getting a cortisone shot, a first for any of the doctor’s patient’s.

The prognosis, according to past patients, is 100% pain reduction; however, it could take up to 4 months with no running. People asked, wouldn’t it have healed in 4 month’s of no running anyway? I said it hasn’t as of yet. I’ve laid off numerous times. Last year I took off 3 week’s at a time, and every time it hurt the whole 3 weeks, at which point I would just resume running because there was no difference from the lay off. Now it is absolutely better. There are days I don’t even notice it. Other days it comes back a little. I’ve been off running 5 ½ week’s already, so I might as well stay the course for as long as it takes. Bottom line, it will heal, and, without surgery or drugs, it should be as strong as ever. That is what I want, not a quick fix. Put yourself 10 year’s ahead, and when you look back, you won’t even remember being off 4 month’s. Without the procedure it would have taken 2 years, with the procedure it will heal in four months. So you could say I’ll be running a year and a half sooner. Anthony Garrow

I just wanted to thank Coach Carroll and everyone in the club for helping me train this past spring and summer. This was my first year back into the swing of things of track after a 4 year hiatus of playing Rugby. I did as good as I could have hoped for this year at the UB Open meet, and at Empire State Games Trials, but I still need a lot of training.

The track workouts and the welcoming atmosphere of the club did have an unexpected benefit for me. In July, I heard about a tryout for the US Bobsled and Skeleton team that was being offered at the Old Stadium at UB. This was part of a national recruiting tour of athletes around the country.

For the tryouts we ran 30 meter sprints, 30 meter flying sprints, vertical leap, and a 5 hop test. At the conclusion of the test, we were given T-shirts and thanked for trying out. They would let us know in a few weeks if we made the cut. I had assumed I had been looked over until I got an email in the end of September inviting me for a week of training at the US Olympic Training center in Lake Placid. Excited, I readily signed up. That camp was last week, and it was great. Despite recovering from a torn hamstring I caught in November doing speed work, I performed well.

There has been no thrill greater in my life, not even skydiving, then racing down the Ice at 70 mph on a sled the size of a pizza tray. I was even more excited when at the end of the week, I was told they would like me to come back and train in their development program. I am still in the early stages, and I have a long way to go before I make the national or Olympic teams, but I have my foot in the door.

I don't think this would have been possible without the help and encouragement of Checkers and its members. Josh Penfold [Decathlete]

Wednesday, 2/26, 6:30 pm.

D’Youville College, Madonna Hall

5:45 Pre-registration for Shamrock Run and Buffalo Marathon.

7:00 Buffalo News Runner-of- the-Year Awards.

Program resumes after awards.

It was a very exciting Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile this year with a masters women setting a new WORLD RECORD with a 5:08.55. Becky Heuer accepted the challenge to be the rabbit for the race. She was to set the pace and hit the 800 meters at 2:30. With that in mind, both girls worked together closely. Soon after that, Patty Blanchard 45, went on to pass Becky ( 5:17.08) and set the new record.

In the men's race 1st and second place went to two 43-year-olds. Anselm Lebourne from NJ edged out Tom Dalton of Schenectady in the last 100 meters. Anselm ran a 4:24.46 with Tom a step behind with a 4:25.35. Third place was a coach in a bright and fast Checkers’ singlet we all know, Bob Carroll ,with a 4:39.02. Brother, Dave Carroll was 8th overall with a 4:49.02, a perfect 10 seconds from his brother. How did you do that guys? Other Checker members who raced were: MEN Ken Gordon 5:59.80; Ralph Zimmermann 6:00.76; Bill Donnelly 6:28.59; Sandy Blume 7:26.89;Ted Sullivan 9:53.18. WOMEN Sue Munson 5:28.10; Diane Sardes 6:07.73; Diane McGuire 7:08.86; Helen Bueme 8:47.02; Edna Hyer 9:24.17