American's Marathon Man Badwater How Running has Changed over the Past 50 Years  

Illinois Marathon Information Session  Lessons Learned from the Illinois Marathon Ultramarathon Panel

6:30 p.m. August 10, 2009: Special Recreation Running Program

Second Wind Running Club would like to invite the public to listen to Lucia Alzaga and Hannah Sheets talk about their plans to organize a 5K training program that pairs individuals with intellectual disabilities with club members.  Dinner and drinks at El Toro Bravo are at your own expense.

Lucia Alzaga recently guided a blind runner in the Green Bay Marathon.  They ran the entire marathon tethered together and guided by Lucia’s voice. Lucia has a passion for assisting disabled runners, which led to this partnership with CUSR.  She will be the liaison and volunteer coordinator. 

Champaign-Urbana Special Recreation (CUSR) was formed through a cooperative agreement with the Champaign and Urbana Park Districts to provide recreation programs and leisure services for residents with disabilities. They provide quality recreation programs for people with disabilities by hiring and training qualified staff, providing staff ratios that ensure program safety and success, and adapting programs and equipment to meet the needs of the participants. http://cuspecialrecreation.com/

Hannah Sheets is a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, employed as the Sports and Fitness Coordinator at Champaign-Urbana Special Recreation.  CUSR will offer a 5K training program this fall that will pair participants with volunteer partners who will train together for the Rattlesnake Master 5K.

Hannah will speak about the importance of physical activity and lifetime leisure activities for persons with intellectual disabilities, as well as the goals of the CUSR 5K Training program and the CUSR Sports and Fitness Program area as a whole.  Event Flyer

6:30 p.m. June 15, 2009:  Lessons Learned from the Illinois Marathon

Second Wind Running Club would like to invite our members to listen to highlights and lessons learned from the club’s training program coordinators and the race director for the 2009 Illinois Marathon. It will start at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 15, 2009 at El Toro Bravo on Springfield Rd. Dinner and drinks are at your own expense.

Second Wind Marathon Training Coordinators, Kelly Bails and Nancy McCarty and ½ Marathon Training program coordinators, Mike Lindemann and Jan Seeley, will discuss the 2009 program and highlight the successes with testimonials from a few of the participants and mentors.  They will also share the proposed changes for the 2010 program.  This is your chance to learn how the program worked and how you can get involved as a mentor or participant next year!

~Kelly Bails is President of SWRC, Coordinator of registration for both training programs, Mentor for the Marathon Training program and finished the Illinois Marathon.

~Nancy McCarty is a Board Member of SWRC, Coordinator and Mentor for the Marathon Training program and finished the Illinois Marathon.

~Jan Seeley is Coordinator for the ½ Marathon Training program, editor of Marathon and Beyond, Illinois Marathon Race Committee Member and finished the Illinois ½ Marathon.

~Mike Lindemann is Coordinator for the ½ Marathon Training Program, an Owner of Body n’ Sole Sports and Illinois Marathon Race Committee Member.

Event Flyer

6:30 p.m. September 15, 2008:  Illinois Marathon Information Session

Second Wind Running Club would like to invite the public to listen to Mark Knutson  talk about the current status and future plans on the Illinois Marathon at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, September 15, 2008 in the upstairs private party room at Jupiter’s II near the corner of Windsor and Duncan.   Dinner and drinks are at your own expense. http://illinoismarathon.com/

The marathon, marathon relay, half-marathon, 5K and kids run will take place on April 11, 2009.  The course will feature the University of Illinois Campus, residential neighborhoods, historic downtown, and will finish at the 50-yard line of Memorial Stadium.  In addition to the running events, there will be a health and fitness expo to be held at the Activities and Recreation Center.

Mark Knutson is the President of CasMar Events.  With degrees in Business Administration and Finance, Mark’s background is very diverse.  His work experience includes positions in finance, business management/ownership, and mergers & acquisitions.

Mark’s true passion, however, is the world of endurance sports, which he has competed and participated in for the last 20 years.  In May of 2007, Mark left the “corporate world” to become a race director/event manager full time.  Shortly thereafter, Mark and his wife, Cassi started CasMar Events.

Mark’s road racing history includes 13 marathons, 25 half marathons and a variety of shorter distance events.  In 2007, he completed his first Ironman Triathlon in Panama City, FL and hopes to do the same in 2009 (after the Illinois Marathon, of course).

Mark believes that there are endurance events for everyone of all ages and skill levels to participate in.   Event Flyer

6:30 p.m. August 11, 2008:  Ultramarathon Panel

Join Second Wind members and their guests at Jupiter's II (corner of Windsor and Duncan) for dinner and drinks to listen to a panel of ultramarathoners describe their experience running and training for ultramarathons. 

Bill Dey:  Bill Dey ran his first ultra in 2000. He has continued to run ultras on a regular basis ever since. While he has completed a couple 100 mile races, he currently focuses on races 50 miles in length or less. Running long distances somewhat compensates for his lack of speed.

Don Frichtl:  Don jumped from 5Ks to ultras in 2001, skipping the marathon distance for awhile.  Since then he’s done over 80 ultras and 16 marathons.  Despite the heat,  he loves Howl at the Moon 8 Hour Ultra.  Don prefers events less than 12 hours.  At the end of the day he’s ready for a few cold ones! 

Brian Kuhn: Brian has been running ultra's since the end of 2003 when he ran his first 50k.  Since then he has run 50 ultras, most recently completing the Bighorn 100 mile run in Wyoming.  He particularly enjoys races that take a day or longer to complete and hopes to run the Hardrock 100 next year.

Marla Luckey: Marla ran her first ultra a couple years after college. Since then, she’s been hooked on long-distance trail running not only for the mental and physical challenges but also for this community in which an individual's effort is appreciated as much as his or her talent. She hopes to improve at 50s/100Ks for a couple more years before stepping up to a 100.

Kevin Stroud: Once an upstanding member of the community, who ran on the roads and only in white socks, Kevin fell into a bad crowd a few years ago and now regularly disappears into the wilderness for hours—returning in socks that are definitely not white! He began running ultramarathons less than two years ago as a component of marathon training, and has since finished 10.

How Running has Change over the Past 50 years, Jan Seeley: 6:30 p.m. Monday, October 1, 2007

August 27, 2007: Surviving Badwater Recap by Kelly Bails

The August Speaker Series featured an entertaining presentation by Brian Kuhn and Tracy Thomas on the Badwater Ultramarathon.  The location of this talk was the upstairs banquet room at The Great Impasta.  The room started filling quickly and the wait staff had to break down a wall and set-up new tables in order to accommodate all the people.  We had over 75 people at this event.

Brian and Tracy started with a history of the Badwater Ultramarathon.  Only 90 people are allowed entry into the 135 mile race, which starts 280 feet below sea level in Death Valley and ends at the Mt. Whitney Portals at 8360 feet.  After looking at the course elevation map, I was amazed that the race organizers could find 90 people that would even want to run the race.  Yikes!  Not only does the course have 13,000 feet of cumulative vertical ascent and 4700 feet of cumulative descent, but the temperatures during this race makes Illinois summers look cold. 

The photos of the race course were amazing.  The photos look as if they were from another planet.  There were also some great photos of Brian and Tracy during their good and bad times on the course.

Why did they enter the race?  Brian has a friend who ran the race a few years ago and since that time, Brian had an interest in running the race.  Tracy told us she entered the race to raise money for breast cancer research.  The last I heard was that Tracy raised over $12,000 for the Dr. Susan Love research foundation.

Training was another question that was on everyone’s mind.  Brian and Tracy ran stairs, up and down ramps, and sat in a sauna from 40 to 60 minutes a day in the month leading up to the race.  Brian average 40 miles per week and used long races as his training runs.  Tracy ran long runs up to 45-50 miles and had weekly mileage over 100 miles.  

Tracy and Brian each had a crew to support them during the race as there is no aid on the course.  Brian finished 21^st overall in a time of 37:25:52 and Tracy finished 22^nd overall with a time of 37:26:44.  Tracy was the third female finisher.  A total of 78 people finished the race.  Even though Brian and Tracy finished with close times, they did not see each other on the course because Brian started at 6:00 a.m. and Tracy started 10:00 a.m.  What an amazing accomplishment!

July 30, 2007: America’s Marathon Man Recap by Kelly Bails

Jerry’s first experience with running back in 1975 was by a lifeguard who convinced Jerry to run a ¼ mile on the beach in the Siesta Keys.  In 1982, Jerry ran his first marathon in Philadelphia in 3:32.  It was entertaining to hear the reason behind his decision to run the marathon.  Jerry made a bet with his girlfriend that if he finished the marathon, she would have to marry him.  Jerry finished the marathon and they did get married.  Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last.  We learned that his first and second marriage failed due to an addiction to alcohol.  Jerry turned to his addiction to alcohol to an addiction to running.  He married again and this time the marriage fell apart due to his addiction to running.  Finally he met the women of his dreams.  Elaine Doll-Dunn has been married to Jerry for the past 14 years.  She is also an avid runner and is the Race Director for the Leading Ladies Marathon.

Jerry described running as his vehicle out of a bad lifestyle and he now lives by the motto “Don’t limit your challenges… challenge your limits.” Jerry kept challenging himself with greater and greater running distances.  First he tackled every distance between the marathon and 100 miles.  Later he focused on using his running talents to help others.  In 1990, Jerry staged a 150 mile race across Indiana by running 50 miles a day for three days to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.  In 1991, Jerry ran 1900 miles and biked 807 miles from San Francisco to Washington DC to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity.  He has also raised money for homeless shelters and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Now to list a few of the other extreme things that Jerry has accomplished in his career.  To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Boston Marathon, he ran the marathon course 26 days in a row.  In 2000, he ran 200 marathons and on his 60^th birthday, he celebrated by running 60 miles. No wonder he is called America’s Marathon Man.