Best of success to all of our Boston bound Beyond runners. Julie Steeby made the front page headlines of the Saturday, April 18 Kalamazoo Gazette with her amazing story. Check it out here.
Congratulations to Andrew Vidor and Mandy Pryor who encountered winds and rains to finish their first 26.2 at last weekend’s Glass City Marathon. Not only that, but both won age division awards (top 5 medal). Andrew ran a 3:35:39 to finish 4th in his age division while Mandy ran a 3:52:42 to take 5th. The next day they found themselves volunteering at the Boston Tea Party, where Andrew assumed the role of Wheaton Hill course entertainer.
Andrew Vidor preparing for his first marathon
Also at Glass City, the Beyond's Peggy Zeeb joined Front Line Racing Team mates Julie Winter, Andrew Radully, Jason LaFave, Greg Thomas to run the 5 person mixed relay. The quintet won the team event and set a new Glass City Mixed team record in 2:49:03.Michael Sherrard ran a smoking, Boston qualifying 3:05:36 at the Martian Marathon, finishing 3rd in his age division. In no less incredible a feat, Natalie Dale has been nominated the Fred Colbert of women’s running after finishing the 33.5 mile Kal-Haven Trail Solo Run, then turning around and running Martian Marathon the following Saturday. If that wasn’t enough, Natalie has the Country Music Marathon on her itinerary for next weekend.
Here is Natalie’s first-hand account of her trip to Mars....
On Sunday, April 6 I drove to Dearborn, Michigan and ran the Martian Marathon. It was an out-and-back run on Edward Hines Drive, which parallels a park area with a biking/walking trail. There were about 350 participants that ran the marathon course, with ten times as many running the half marathon and 10K races. The course was hillier than I expected, and could have used more water stops (which should have been super easy to do on an out-and-back), but the weather was beautiful. My knees are still recovering from running this race and the solo Kal-Haven the weekend before, but I finished third in my age group with a time of 4:15:30. Many thanks to the Boston and Beyond group for helping me to train this winter; I could not have done it without you. I look forward to more exciting events to come this summer and fall...and beyond.
Beyond participants finishing the Martian Half Marathon were Bob Poznanski in 1:41:52 and Jim Roth in 1:41:52. Congratulations to all our Martian Finishers!
