Tim Hibbard shuffles in with the race's only sub-20 minute time.
Gorgeous, cool, mostly sunny morning framed the Lawrence Trail Hawks’ inaugural Shoreline Shuffle 5k(ish) Trail Run yesterday, on the North Shore trails at Clinton State Park in Lawrence.
Nineteen runners braved the course, billed as being tough enough for veterans, short enough for beginners. Everyone finished, no one got hurt.
Overall men and women, and men and women’s masters got beautiful 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards, handmade by Sandy “Crafty Hawk” Beiter. Official race photog Brad Trimble got complete pics of the guys and gals getting their awards, which I hope to get posted soon at the Trail Hawks website.
Laurie "Pixie Hawk" Euler (left) awards 1st female finisher to Lisa "Garden Hawk" Giullan.”
Also handmade — the weatherproof race bibs. Angie “Skyhawk” Shellito and family created the colorful bibs, personalized for each runner.
Angie "Sky Hawk" Shellito displays a few of her handmade race bibs.
Runners blasted off as Official Timer Darin “Lincoln Hawk” Schneidewind gave the “on your mark, get set, go.” The field of 19 took off across grassy meadow, heading for Lands End and the toughest part of the course — the highly technical red trail, which is nothing but rock and root. The lake views on this section are rather splendid however.
They were even a little more splendid than usual, since a week before the race, a gang of Hawks including Stuart “Ozark Trail Hawk” Johnson, Deb “Kettle Hawk” Johnson, Debbie “Wheat Hawk” Webster, Julie “Sunday Hawk” Toft, Christy “Hawk Mama” Craig, Levi “Smilin’ Hawk” Bowles, Kristen Bowles, Mary Ann “Squeaky Hawk” McIntire, Renee “Super Dooper Hawk” Babin, James “Skull Hawk” Barker and yours truly cleaned trash off the course.
Caution: Hawks at work! Shoreline Shuffle Pre-race trash removal.
Although runners contended with rocks, roots and each other, one thing they didn’t have to mess with was a lot of weeds and branches sticking into the trail. Mike Goodwin of the Kansas Trails Council and Art King of the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club mowed and weed-whacked the course to make sure it looked good for our runners.
A few minutes after the race started, I short-cutted down to the red trail to see if I could spot some runners — no sooner had I arrived, then Tim Hibbard came blasting through with a few others right behind him — including Nick “Colo Hawk” Lang in his minimalist Tarahumara Indian running sandals, which are about a half-step up from being barefoot. He was moving right along, though!
Nick’s trail running sandals — photo courtesy Kristi Mayo
So I figured I’d better get back to the finish line if I wanted to get any pics of finishers. Back at the finish line, ultrarunner Rick Mayo was set up to take pics at the top of the stairs. As the course ends, you see, runners are zipping down the smooth, extremely runnable blue trail, when suddenly, they have to make a sharp left turn and climb two flights of concrete stairs.
Liz “Spider Hawk” Smith was stationed at the base of the stairs to make sure runners didn’t accidentally zip past. I wonder what kind of comments she got when pointing up the stairs to the speedsters.
I think our winner, Tim Hibbard, referred to the stairs as “soul crushing.”
Mary Ann “Squeaky Hawk” McIntire also directed traffic on the course, where it crossed itself. She got runners, first, as they came off the rough red trail — so may’ve heard a few choice comments herself!
Anyway, Rick got some nice stair-climbing shots including one of his spouse Kristi pounding up the concrete.
Trail Hawk Kristi Mayo races up the concrete steps at course's end for a 6 of 19 finish in 28:35.
Poised at the top of the stairs as he was, with and Jim “Family Hawk” Beiter, and others, Rick let us know at the finish line a few hundred feet away that runners were coming. So Julie “Sunday Hawk” Toft beat the cowbell while everyone yelled and clapped when runners appeared at the top, and headed for the finish.
There was a lot of yelling and belling as the runners came in after Tim, pretty steadily, for about 25 minutes. The crowd around the snacks table grew, as the Shufflers slurped down Gatorade, water, candy, bananas and fresh-baked bread from Great Harvest Bread Company in Lawrence.
Shoreline Shuffle fabulous female finishers
Great Harvest bakes delicious nutritious goodies, and they support many of the races here in town, so I’m a fan! One of their bakers, Ruth Story ran the race, too.
With all 19 runners and course sweep Deb “Kettle Hawk” Johnson in, at under 45 minutes (If you know this course, you’ll understand how good that is), and 0 for 19 for off-course, it was time for the award ceremony. I was really proud to have those fantastic hand-made awards to give out, but I couldn’t help but feel everybody deserved one.
Then there was more eating and drinking and cussing about the stairs, and one last group photo. Everyone — runners, vols, family and friends squeezed in together, and said “finish” (what a happy word) and I snapped the pic.
Everybody -- family friends, vols and runners, and the jug I borrowed from work (yes, with permission).
As our friends departed — it was over too soon — and we packed up the race, Renee “Super Dooper” Hawk headed out to clean the course, taking down all the ribbons (there were plenty), and picking up all the flags and signs.
Thank Renee, that was huge!
Also thanks to our other splendid volunteers, starting with my loyal spouse, the Big K, who got the Gatorade to the race, after I found at the last minute, I left my shopping bag that had the stuff in it at the store. Doh! If you drank Gatorade there, it was thanks to the Big K.
She also got the big Trail Hawks banner done that you may have seen bravely fluttering in the wind, and handled T-shirt sales and new member sign-up.
Laurie “Pixie Hawk” Euler, Angie “Sky Hawk” Shellito, and Julie “Sunday Hawk” Toft rounded out the registration.
Other stuff — lugging water, mixing Gatorade, moving tables — Nick “Colo Hawk” Lang, who also ran the race and got the 2nd overall male; Finish line official Debbie “Wheat Hawk” Webster, always ready with a hug and a big charge of positivity; Course sweep Deb “”Kettle Hawk” Johnson; rescue runner (thank goodness no rescuing was needed) Jim “Family Hawk” Beiter; and official timer Darin “Lincoln Hawk” Schneidewind.
Darin, a hundred-mile man, has been the runner of the family for some time now — this time he got to watch while son Jarret and spouse Darcie slipped on their running shoes and ran the race.
Liz “Spider Hawk” Smith, and Mary Ann “Squeaky Hawk” were THE reason no one went of course in the race — one of the first trail races I’ve seen where that’s been the case. And, they directed parking.
Special thanks goes to Sherri Withers, Administrative Specialist at Clinton State Park for helping us get permission to hold the race, and making sure all the park officials knew we were coming. And, of course, to Great Harvest Bread Company — nothing shows you care like feeding people — and Art King, Lawrence Mountain Bike Club; and Mike Goodwin, Kansas Trails Council for cutting back the vegetation so that the runners could actually see the trail.
If you couldn’t make it — well, there’s always the 2nd annual next year! And check out the remainder of the 2009 schedule of area trail races on Bad Ben’s Trail Running site. You’re guaranteed to find a fine race you’ll love.
And by the way — Colo Hawk and me will head out Saturday morning to check out routes and distance for the next Lawrence Trail Hawks trail race. I won’t tell you what we’ve got in mind, but I will give you a clue — it’s another North Shore race, and is tentatively titled “Sanders’ Saunter.”
12 days to Heartland.
More later!
gary
