8/20: Our Annual Yosemite Camping and Hiking Trip.  A hiking and camping trip in Yosemite National Park was held on the weekend of August 20-22.  Participants conquer/climbed mighty Mt. Conness and visited other areas of stunning beauty while enjoying our national park.

8/01: Skyline 50k Results: Congratulations to Jean Pommier and Lina McCain who won respectively, 1st and 3rd in their age group. Their race results can be see in our results section.

7/31: 21st Annual Full Vineman Triathlon & Bar Results: Congratulations to participates Penny Beeston, Peggy Alfred, Pat Koren, Christina Brownson, Michael Dhuey, Jan Pepper, and Johanna Ylanen. Triathlon results are listed in our  results section.

7/5: Western States Photos.  Thanks to Sue Bush, Gregg Levin, Randy Ison, Rob Larson and Peter Hargreaves for these photos. Here.   

6/30: Membership Dues.  Don't forget that memberships run through June 30th so if you haven't renewed, dues are due.  Individual membership STILL only $25.00.  More details are here.

6/27: Striders Western States Results:  Here are the finishing times for each of the Striders who entered the Western States 100 this year.  For perspective, 458 people were signed up to run the race this year.  423 started the race and 328 finished in 30 hours or less.  Race results are listed in the results section, while photos are here.

6/23: Board Members.  Meeting Minutes of May 25th posted here.  During the meeting, the make up of next year's Board of Directors was settled. The 7 Striders who will be serving you, the membership, in this important role for 1 year from July 1st are:

Lina McCain, John McKiernan, Larry Myers, Randy Ison, Mike Dhuey, Gene Kiernan, Gregg Levin.  Their responsibilities within the Board will be agreed by them at their first meeting on July 13th.  All members are welcome to attend Board meetings.

5/31: Hey Striders!  Don't those people pictured above look like their having fun in an idyllic setting!  Ah, Wilderness!  If you haven't already signed up, here is your chance to sign up for Last Chance (the aid station at the Western States 100 Mile Race, June 26 and 27).  As usual, several of your loonier fellow Striders will be in the race (to be expected with a full moon).  To help them and cheer them on click  here.

5/23: Congratulations to Peter Baum for his almost perfect estimate (-1 minute) of  his time in the Predictive Race.  His prize is a $20 gift certificate to the Hobees Restaurant of his choice.  Runner up was Johanna Ylanen (+6 minutes), who won one of our widely sought after Striders running shirts.  Race results are listed in the results section.

5/22: Photos from the May 15th Annual Spring Picnic and  8.9 Mile Predictive Race. Click here.

5/20: Randy Ison's photos of the Quicksilver Aid Station on May 8th. Click here.

Lina

Bill

Jean

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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