9/15: Reminder about this coming Saturday (9/19) This Saturday we will meet at the usual place (parking lot), then carpool - caravan up Montebello Road to run long, medium or short courses from the top. Following this, we have been invited to Noel and Bill's house at 15060 Montebello Road for a potluck brunch, swimming pool and hot tub party. Bring some food to share and a swim suit if you'd like to use the pool.

9/11: Clambake Photos added here.

9/3: Yosemite Weekend. Photo Album added here. 18 Striders and friends had a great weekend on the eastern side of Yosemite. This photo from Bruce and Lina.

8/26: Spring Picnic Photos.  Clearly in the better-late-than-never category, Mike Dhuey's photos of the Picnic are now posted here.

8/25: Big Sur River Run.  Saturday October 24th, 10am. Camp over on Friday night in Pfeiffer State Park. Details here.

8/14:  Yosemite Trip. Sign up sheet closed. 18 sign ups. Details here.

8/9: August Newsletter.  Gregg Levin as this year's editor produces his first edition here.

7/31: Yosemite Trip, August 21-23.  More details and a link to the Signup form added: here.

7/27: Thank you letter from Greg Soderlund and the Western States Board: here

7/25: Striders annual clambake on Sunday, August 30th.  More details here.

7/17: Striders Website Search launched.  27 years of Newsletters scanned.  To the left you will see a new search dialogue which uses a Google custom search engine to just search this website. At the same time we have scanned all the paper newsletters we have going back to 1982: here.  So now the search function can find all references to your target of interest. Normal Google syntax applies, for instance Donald OR Mickey (note the or is capitalized), or Donald AND Mickey. Phrases should be in inverted commas: 'Mickey Mouse'. To exclude words prefix them with a minus sign. For example: Doug OR White -elephant.  You have to put up with occasional Goggle adverts on the results page but that is a small price to pay. We are missing a number of newsletters between 2002 to 2006. So if you have squirreled any away not shown on the newsletters page please let us know. Enjoy the archives!

7/14: Club day-hiking trip to Yosemite.  We are planning a Striders 2 night trip to Yosemite high country on the third weekend of August.  SJ Schools start on the 17th so hopefully the campsites should not be too busy.  To avoid back-packing we plan to camp both nights nearby our cars. So the plan would be to travel up, preferably car-pooling, on Friday 21st. If people can take the afternoon off they can get ahead of the Friday evening traffic. We would camp both nights either at Tuolumne Meadows or just outside the park on the east side off Tioga Road. On the Saturday we would do a 3+ mile hike up Mt Dana, the second highest peak in Yosemite at 13,057', in the morning and lunch at the peak. The start of the trail is at the Eastern exit of the park at the Ranger's station.  Cook your own food for Saturday evening.   On Sunday 23rd, we'd break camp and drive West to May Lake parking. From there we'd hike to May Lake and then up Mt. Hoffman, 10,845'.  This is a 6+ mile hike.  Then Sunday afternoon drive back home.  Basic gear includes: tent, sleeping bag, hiking shoes, cooking gear, food, snacks for the hikes, water, Sunblock/deet, hat.   Mark it in your calendar. Should be fun. More info and sign up page here. (Photo used under open license http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia# CC-BY-SA)

7/7: Team In Training: Tahoe Charity Bike Ride. Peggy has written about Penny's, Andrew's and her fund raiser here.

Striders' President Peter writes: "As I mentioned at the last Saturday's club run, on behalf of the Striders I'd like to thank Lina & Peggy for all their hard work as joint Aid Station Captains this year.  Their huge efforts behind the scenes over many weeks really paid off last weekend. And thank you to everyone who helped at Last Chance to make it what is probably the race's finest Aid Station. Very little dust and remarkably straight!"

6/30: : Back in May we wrote about the plight of a local Leukemia sufferer, young Nick Glasgow, who was in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. Possible donors would be of an Asian and Caucasian mix. For an update click here. 

 6/30: 10K benefit on Saturday, July 18th. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training is organizing a 10K benefit on Saturday, July 18th, at 9:00am at Shoreline Park in Mountain View.  For more information please visit www.runonbanktnt.org

6/30: June Board Minutes added. Here.

6/30: Quicksilver Aid Station.  If any members have any photos please send them in. Bill Jones writes:

The Striders did their customary great job of manning the Dam Overlook Aid Station at the Almaden-Quicksilver 50 Mile/50K/25k ultra race on Saturday May 9. Bill Jones and Gene Kiernan volunteered as co-captains this year and when Gene caught a nasty bug Peggy Alfred valiantly jumped in to help out. That was a good thing, since Bill managed to sleep thru his 4:15 alarm and only arrived at the aid station, with all the gear, just in time to set up for the first runner.

The Striders were well-represented in the race- Jean Pommier, Bill Dodson, Christina Brownson (paced later on by Patty Koren) and Charles Stevens ran various distances and we got to cheer them on multiple times as they passed thru our station. The race organizers did a fabulous job and even managed to hump a couple of extra water jugs up to the site to avoid us running out.

The Club Volunteers included Steve Reagan, Tom Kaisersatt(!), Patty Koren, Larry Meyers, Rob Larson, John McKiernan, Randy Ison, Mike Shields, Lina McCain, Mike Florence, Anil Rao, Maria Morales, Patrick, Claire, Liam and Isaac Sexton as well as Bill and Peggy. This was good practice for the Last Chance Aid Station at Western States in late June. 

Jean Pommier was second overall and set an age group record for the 50-mile course- 12 minutes faster than the previous in 6:48:58. Charles Stevens: 9:30:26, Bill Dodson: 11:06:36. In the 50k we had Christina Brownson: 07:27:45.  The volunteers got to enjoy a great barbecue at the finish line after packing up all the gear.   Bill

6/28: Western States 100 results.

Despite hot temperatures, our 3 member entrants succeeded in this weekend's race.  Jean's performance was outstanding.  Last Chance photos here.

Jean  Pommier,      21st place, 20:56:49

Charles Stevens,   107th place, 26:41:22

Dennis Connor,     209th place, 29:33:41

6/21: Race results added for Quicksilver, Ohlone and Mt Diablo.   Here.

6/4: Western States 100

Penny writes: WHAT DID YOU DO MEMORIAL DAY???

The Memorial Day "weekend" is traditionally spent by at least a few Striders on portions of the Western States Trail and Peggy has a story for you about this years event (see below). We wish our Strider members running this year's Western States all the very best. Run strong Striders. Keep a look out for Jean Pommier (if you can get a glimpse as he flies past), Charles Stevens (always a strong WS participant who keeps coming back stronger than ever) and Dennis Connor (on his first attempt at the big one .. go Dennis). We will give them special Strider attention at Last Chance.

Speaking of LAST CHANCE ... thank you to all you wonderful volunteers. We have plenty of volunteers willing to spend lots of their time and energy to help the runners. They do this tirelessly without expectation of anything in return ... but we can guarantee at least a reasonable expectation of a really good time!!

A few notes to volunteers from Captain Lina ..... please read your notes so you don't forget any essentials such as water, bug spray and sunscreen (or else we can assure you you probably will not have such a great time). We have so many willing helpers this year that we really need you to CARPOOL ... at the very least 2 to a car. Please contact Lina if you want to hook up with someone else for a lift up/back. We have more volunteers and more runners than ever before...that means we need more water ... bring along as much as you can, we just can't have too much!

... and now from Peggy about training camp ....

"First you run, then you run some more, then keep running!" This kind of sums up the adventure of the annual "Memorial Day Western States Training Camp" weekend, sponsored by the WS folks for all who wish to run a lot of miles over 1 to 3 days.

Five Striders, Christina B., Lina McC., Charles S, Dennis C. and myself ran one or two of the three days that the weekend offerred for runners. If one ran all three days, the total mileage would be 72 miles of the Western States trail......whew!

Lina, Christina, Dennis and I ran two days (Sat and Sun) and that was plenty! The trail is beautiful, technical and loaded with "ups and downs".......runs through the peaks and canyons of the Sierra Hills above Auburn, CA.

On Saturday, runners loaded up on school buses to be dropped off at Robinson Flat. We ran through about 1 1/2 miles of not-too-deep snow before cresting in elevation to start our first descent of the day, the run length that day 50k. Very beautiful topography surrounded us along the trail.....I ran mostly on my own and was taken back to the memories of having run this section during the race in 2007. It was a peaceful, coming-home sort of feeling as these mountains have been a place of solace and acceptance for me since my childhood experiences of backpacking, rafting, and climbing. I still enjoy these activities today, except now they also include trail running.....how lucky is that! ;-)

We started from Forest Hill school on Sunday morning, no buses needed, and ran down to the American River.....one of it's mighty forks. This run was 20 miles and included beautiful river vistas from high up on the canyon, running on a sandy trail along the water for a stretch, and a lovely cold plunge into the river to rejuvenate tired and sore legs before trekking uphill for the last 2 1/2 miles to the finish where a filling Bar-be-que awaited us.

All this for just 20.00 dollars a day.....such a deal for wonderful runs (complete with aid stations), good companionship, sharing of Western States dreams along the trail, and enjoying good days in the magnificent beauty of the beautiful Sierra hills. This is definitely a return trip!

Run strong,  Peggy

5/21: Bone Marrow Donor request.  We have been asked to publicize the plight of a local Leukemia sufferer who is in urgent need of a transplant. Possible donors would be of an Asian and Caucasian mix. Read more here.

5/14: What's Afoot?  The Club Board has recently decided to publish the newsletters on line.  Initially these will consist of those editions that we already have in electronic format.  However we are now exploring how we can digitize our many years of printed newsletters and add them to this page.  Newsletter page here.

Please look in your files to see if you have any pdf Newsletters from 2002 to date that are not shown below on the Newsletters page. If you have please email the board.

5/12: Race Results updated.  Here.

5/5: Striders Spring Picnic, May 16th.   Peggy writes: "Hi all! Please plan to attend the annual Striders Spring Picnic, being held on May 16th after the normal Striders run in the picnic area adjacent to where we park (by the pretty little creek). Charcoal will be provided for roasting any meats you wish to bring. Please bring a potluck item to share, and bring your own plates, utensils and drinks. Any games you might have to add to the fun would be appreciated.....wiffle ball, table games, Frisbee, etc. This is a nice opportunity to socialize with other club members, relax, and enjoy the pretty surroundings of the lovely park we run in. Hope to see you there!"

4/29: Cupertino Footbridge over I-280 opens.  If you run or bike in the Cupertino area you will pleased to hear that the new footbridge at Mary Avenue over the 280 opened on April 30th at 3pm.  Time lapse sequence of the construction here.

4/28: Tom Kaisersatt's Bench Tribute:

On Saturday May 2nd, San Jose Fit presented a fine bench to Tom Kaisersatt in recognition of all the enthusiasm he has inspired in their many marathon training members over the years.

Typically in each year they train some 400 new marathoners. They invited the Striders to attend the event on the Los Gatos Creek trail close to the Roberts Road overpass. So look out for Tom's bench next time you are running down the trail.

4/27: Big Sur Marathon results. Congratulations to Penny Beeston, Noel Relyea, John McKiernan & Peter Hargreaves. Results here.  Thanks to Rebecca Feng for the photo.

4/27: Quicksilver Aid Station Volunteers for Saturday May 9th. We still need more volunteers to help at the Striders' Aid Station.  Please sign up here.

4/24: Santa Cruz Half Marathon results. Congratulations to Dave Radtke and Randy Ison. Results here.

4/13: World's Coldest Marathon. Reuter's video here.

4/10: Bill Dodson's running secrets.  Webmaster's note: we persuaded Bill to divulge his secrets to his great running results.  Hardly a week goes by with out him taking another age group record!  Here's Bill.

4/8: American River 50 Mile success.  Congratulations to 5 Striders on their fine results:

Lina McCain: 8.55.24
Bill Dodson: 9.54.00  (1st in age group!)
Peggy Alfred: 10.21.19
Pat Koren: 11.30.06
Christina Brownson: 12.22.30

Lina

Bill

Jean

Unfortunately our super quick Jean Pommier had to pull up due to asthma: read more on his blog.  Thanks to Jean for the photos.

3/26: Stevens Creek Reservoir. Good to see the reservoir is almost full. Just 6 inches shy of the spillway.

3/21: Lake Tahoe TNT Fund Raiser here

3/4: Photos of Peggy's 50th Celebratory 50k here.

3/2: New Family member of the Striders! Claire Saxton reports: 

Dear Family and Friends,

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Isaac Ryan Saxton! Isaac joined us on February 26 at 6:05pm. He was 8lbs-6oz and 20 inches long. Claire's labor was extremely smooth and we were barely in the hospital for an hour when Isaac was born. We are home now and the entire family is doing well. Liam seems excited to be a big brother.

Here are a few pictures to tide you over until we have more time to get an announcement together.

Love, Patrick, Claire, Liam & Isaac

1/14: Randy Ison's photos of the cold and wet Christmas Relays at Lake Merced. Here.

1/13: Dennis Connor's story of the Javelin Jundred.  Here.  Peter's note: This article was meant to be included in the latest newsletter but due to my oversight that did not happen.  Many apologies.

12/11: Strider of the Year and other "Big-L" Awards.  Here.

12/13: More photos added.  Story and photos of the Holiday Party on December 6th, 2008. Here.

12/9: OUR QUAD CHAMPIONS

Congratulations to Jean, Bill, Christina and Eric... our Quad Dipsea champions. All four finished the incredibly grueling race. Jean and Bill took out the honors - winning their age groups and Jean was third overall. This gives both of our Steven's Creek Striders 1st place in their divisions in the Pacific Association Ultra Mountain Racing series for the year (Masters for Jean and Veterans for Bill) Christina finished in her usual impressive style and this was Eric's (Tom K's son) first Quad Dipsea!

12/9: Penny Beeston is holding an informal track workout every Tuesday evening at 7pm. This is at the De Anza college track in Cupertino. 

Recent:  Photos and story about the Thanksgiving Relays here.

Peggy Alfred writes: "An Adventure Run With Running Deer and Great Horned Goat"  

Tom Kaisersatt's Flight in a stunning P-51 Fighter.  Hollister Airport, November 15th.  Photos here.

Lake Tahoe TNT Fundraiser 

July 7th 2009

Members Penny Beeston, Andrew Johnson and Peggy Alfred completed "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride 2009" to raise funds for the research into leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma.  Together they raised around $8,000 which is tremendous.  As many Striders kindly sponsored these 3 riders, here is Vice President Peggy's write up.

"Card Sharks....cheese heads....flying cows? What do these all have in common? They were some of the bike helmet decorations seen zipping around Lake Tahoe on June 7th during the "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride" 100 mile Team In Training event.

1,800 TNT riders participated amongst the 3,000 bicyclists, raising 3.8 million dollars for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Penny Beeston, Andrew Johnson and I had trained for 8 months with the local Silicon Valley Ride Team, experiencing many beautiful local bike routes. We had the pleasure of some supportive ride-mates along the way, Mike Duhey and Steven Reagen, both avid bicyclists. TNT also provides a coach and a mentor for each group of riders, and it is an extremely well-organized and supportive training program for both the novice athlete and the more seasoned rider.

Bike morning brought brisk temperatures (38 degrees....brrrr!) and some post-rain thunder clouds in an azure-blue sky, beautiful and ideal long-ride weather. Starting at South Shore and venturing clockwise around the lake, we encountered our first hill at Emerald Bay. It was steep but what a view at the top! A few nicely-fueled aid stations helped us make the distance into the town of Truckee then back again to the lake shore and onto our lunch stop at Kings Beach (mile 60). My ride group was treated to a lovely fruit plate complete with chunks of chocolate provided by a rider's husband doing crew support, this in addition to the hearty deli sandwiches served for lunch.

Off and pedaling after lunch and we were enjoying lovely lake shore views again. At mile 80 we hit the 8 mile grade of Spooner Summit, a bit of an uphill push but the last of the big hills. Zooming down Hwy 50 was quite a bit of fun and the view of the lake and the beautiful gradients of color of the water were stunning. Coasting into the finish was a special experience with congratulations all around from team mates, friends and family.

That evening we were treated to a fine victory dinner and party, complete with a DJ for those with enough left in the legs for dancing! TNT knows how to party and celebrate life.

It was also a nice time to sit with friends made over the course of our training, share biking stories and plan for future rides and get-togethers.

Go Team!"    Peggy

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Bone Marrow donors needed.

21st May, 2009

Potential donors needed for Nick Glasgow, leukemia patient.

Subject: Update: Potential donors desperately needed for Nick Glasgow On Friday we circulated word through the global EMC (Connie Clausen's workplace) community and beyond about Nick Glasgow, a 28-year-old EMC employee in California who, in the span of just weeks, has been diagnosed with Leukemia and now is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Over the weekend, the compassion of the EMC family was abundant as hundreds of EMCers responded to this plea -- either by getting tested as potential donors, passing the information along to friends and family members, or just offering their prayers, personal experiences, and asking what they could do. When word reached Cisco, a company larger than EMC that has been a strong partner in the marketplace for years, Cisco people also sprang into action. Nick's mother, Carole Wiegand, also an EMC employee, has expressed her and Nick's deepest gratitude at the outpouring of help and support. But the race to find a qualified donor is at a critical stage, so I am sending this update with more specifics on how a potential donor can expedite a possible match.

Here are the essential facts:

-- Any person whose ethnic background is a mix of Asian and Caucasian, and is in good health with no history of cancer or major illness, and is between the ages of 18 and 60, is a potential donor for Nick. Expanding on the initial information, one does not need to be 75% Caucasian and 25% Asian -- any potential mix could work. While the most likely match would be from a person who is 75% Caucasian and 25% Japanese, it is absolutely possible that other combinations of Caucasian-Asian background in different proportions could work. The Asian background should be Sino-Asian, rather than Indo-Asian. Finding an ideal match with all of Nick's markers is very difficult, and we do not want to exclude any potential donors.
 
-- Go to the "Be The Match" National Marrow Donor Program at http://www.marrow.org/. Rather than ordering a test kit (time is too critical for that), read the facts about donating and then you can register yourself and enter your zip code at http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_in_Person/ index.html to find drives in your area in the next few days. If there is not a local drive in your area within the next few days, please call one of the labs listed and request a time to drop in for urgent testing. (These instructions apply to people in the US. Other countries have similar programs.)  People who join the registry can help any person, not just Nick.
 
-- The test is a simple cheek swab. The actual donation can be a blood draw or a more complex procedure, which would have some side-affects from which people bounce back quickly. This link has facts about the procedural aspects of bone marrow donation:
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/ Myths_%26_ Facts_about_ Marrow_Don/index.html. If a qualified donor is identified and medical or travel costs are an issue, this will be taken care of.
 
-- Special drives for Nick are also being arranged for the next few days. We are looking at possible locations where a drive could facilitate good numbers of potential donors (San Francisco/San Jose area, the Boston/Hopkinton area, and Orlando, where EMC World is taking place this week). Carol Gillespie at the Asian American Donor Program (AADP) is providing testing if you are located in the Bay Area in California (all ethnic minorities and Caucasians wishing to join will be asked to pay a portion of their testing costs, $25).  Please contact AADP directly at 1-800-593-6667and speak to anyone on the staff if you are local, to have your testing done more quickly .
 
-- If you get tested, it is important that you expedite the process by sending an email to all three people in the cc line on this message:

Carole Wiegand (wiegand_carole@ emc.com), Nick's mom and fellow EMC employee

Stacy Morales (morales_stacy@ emc.com) , a friend and EMC colleague of Nick and Carole who is helping to coordinate all this

Carol Gillespie carol@aadp.org at the Asian American Donor Program

 In the email, include your registration ID number, the location where you were tested, and testing date.  The reason for this is that the national database usually takes a few weeks to be updated with a new potential donor's test results.  For Nick, time is of the essence. They will be expediting these samples for Nick so his doctors will be able to urgently retrieve possible matches. 

Thank you to all who have tried to help and expressed concern. I would like to close with this message from Stacy Morales:

"Thank you does not begin to express the gratitude that Carole and Nick have for you all right now.  You have given this family hope, and quite possibly, the gift of life."
 
Mark Fredrickson   fredrickson_ mark@emc. com Office 508-293-7137 Mobile 978-314-6739

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Bill Dodson's running secrets disclosed! 

10th April 2009

Briefly, I keep up on the latest information on nutrition and fitness - both are essential, so neither is more important - and incorporate what makes sense and works for me.  I have long term goals, like completing a marathon before cutoff time when I am 100, but I try to always have short term goals/challenges to keep my motivation up on a daily basis.  I no longer have a car, so I walk, run or bicycle for everything within 20 miles or so (I typically do 80 to 100 miles/week on my bike).  Also, I think that working at REI in footware helps, because I am on my feet and going constantly for shifts of 4 to 8 hours.  I do a full body workout at the gym at least twice a week and stretch every day.

On nutrition, I avoid processed food as much as I can, putting the most emphasis on minimizing saturated (and trans) fat, but eating a wide range of veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts (walnuts and almonds) and wild Alaskan salmon.  Except for eating out, or at others' homes, my only other animal product is nonfat powdered milk (and an occasional B&J Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt :).  I just had my annual physical - my total cholesterol was 140 with HDL of 47, giving me a ratio of 2.9.  As you probably know, anything below 5 is considered good.  To give a little historical perspective, in my mid to late 40's my weight was 170, my cholesterol was 215 and my blood pressure was 140/90.  My older brother was in the early stages of eventually dying from clogged arteries at age 63, so it gave me a major wakeup call.  My father died at age 71, also with clogged arteries and my mother died instantly at age 34 with high blood pressure.  My 4 siblings (2 still living) all are, or were, on blood pressure and/or cholesterol medication.  I take no medication and my blood pressure is typically about 127/75.  Oh yeah, I sometimes have a glass of red wine and drink my coffee with lots of powdered milk.

An office mate helped me get started running in my late 40's, and I ran my first race at age 51, then set lifetime PRs (or PBs as you would say :) in 5k thru marathon at age 60.  My first Ultra was the Helen Klein Classic 50 Mile at age 62.

Thank you for your interest.

Bill

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Lake Tahoe TNT Fundraiser 

June 2009

For just this season a few of our members are hanging up their running shoes and getting onto their bikes! Penny, Peggy and Andrew have signed up for the The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program. All three members have been involved in this wonderful program before (Penny and Peggy did the Rome Marathon a couple of years ago raising funds for them and Andrew has been an honoree (honored patient) with teams for 6 years. This is his first time as a participant in an event. They are training to ride their bikes around Tahoe in an event called "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride". It is a century bike ride around the beautiful Lake Tahoe where many of us love to run.

If you would like to help them in their fundraising efforts you can use the links here to donate online quickly and securely. You will receive confirmation of your donation by email and the recipient will be notified as soon as you make your donation. Note that all donations are 100% tax deductible.

Penny       Peggy       Andrew

Your donation will accelerate finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Andrew is just one of more than 823,000 Americans battling these blood cancers. Remember : the best exercise for the heart is to reach down and helps someone in need!

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