Run for Haiti 5k Recap
I was unable to get myself out of bed for the Mount Airy Trail Run and I run Lunken at least once a year for a race so I decided to do the Help Haiti 5k as there are not many races on the West Side of Cincinnati. But with over 150 races in the Greater Cincinnati area, that is slowly changing. The race was this past Sunday afternoon at Oak Hills High School. It was put on by the Oak Hills High School French Club to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The race had over 300 runners /walkers. Race conditions in terms of weather was great especially for a race going off at 3:00 PM as there was a light rain during the race rather than blazing heat and humidity. The course started from the Oak Hills High School went out towards Lawrence Road and came back to the high school. It extensively featured the subdivision of Cairnhaven. I was exepcting it to be hilly as I have run Lawrence from time to time but I did not expect the numbers of twists and turnarounds on the course which made the course one of the more difficult that I have run. I ran about 27 minutes but I did better than what I have been running lately. Also, I edged out Bill Hemmer who came to town to help support the race plus a few other charitable causes in Greater Cincinnati. Post race had bagels, bananas and water. I did not stay long for the postrace or awards as I had to be somplace by 5:00 PM.

New Poll Question is out
The new poll question for May is out! We want to know: What kind of shirt would you like from a race? Answer now!

St. Joseph Home Incline to the Finish Line 5K Race Survey
St. Joseph Home Incline to the Finish Line 5K was held a few weeks ago, on Sunday, April 25 and they had a good turnout of about 155 runners and walkers, despite the threat of rain.
In order to make their 5K better, St. Joseph Home is conducting a survey. They e-mailed the survey to those who participated in the race, but they really would love to hear from the running community regardless of whether they participated this year, or not.
If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail Renee Russell of Saint Joseph Home with any questions or concerns. St. Joseph Home 5K Survey

Group Run Goes to Armleder Park this Saturday May 15
The Saturday Group Run will meet at Otto Armleder Park this Saturday to run the Memorial Day Race 34 Course.
Also, with the Weight Watchers Walk-It Day 5k on June 6, the group runs will also feature a walk of 1-2 miles for those interested. If you can not run with us, we definitely would like you to come out and walk with us.
Weekly Group Run/Walk Details:
Saturday Run - 8:30AM - Otto Armleder Park - This week's run covers the Memorial Day Race 34 course.
Wednesday - 6:30 PM Run - Hyde Park Square - meet by the fountain - run distances will be about 3-5 miles. Walk Distances will be about 1-2 miles.
For more information contact us.

The Runners’ Club of Greater Cincinnati Presents the Weight Watchers^® Walk-It Day 5K
The Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati, Road Runners Club of America and Weight Watchers have teamed up on June 6th to highlight walking as a great way to get moving, burn calories, and tone muscle at Otto Armleder Park at 10:00am. T-shirt to all participants. Late registration opens at 9:00 AM. You can register online or check the Facebook Page for more information.

UCLA Running Survey
Carmen Ng is a grad student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. For her master's thesis project, she is studying what matters to runners when they look for a new pair of shoes, and she could use your help.
To help her out, complete a brief, 5-minute survey which asks about your running shoe habits. She and her 5 teammates are offering a $300 gift certificate to one person who completes this survey, and your insights would be incredibly helpful to them in completing their thesis.
They are doing this as an academic project, and you do not need to enter any personally-identifiable information(PII). Here's the link to the survey:

http://ucla.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4YrRSWsjko10yvq&SVID=

If you have any questions, let her know and thank you for your help!

Poll Results for April
Here are the final results from the April poll. The question was: What are you doing in the Flying Pig? I am running the marathon tied with I am running the half for the top choice with 8 votes each followed by I am volunteering with 6 votes. Thank you to the 28 that voted. The full results will be left up for the next couple of days or so. The poll question for May will be out soon.

No Group Run this Saturday
With the Flying Pig Marathon this weekend and everybody either running the 5k, the 10k, the half, or the entire Flying Pig Marathon or helping out, there will be no 8:30 AM Saturday Group Run this Saturday May 1. The Saturday Group Run will resume on May 8 with a course preview of the Go OTR5k.

Stop by the Runners' Club Booth at the Flying Pig Expo this Weekend
The Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati has a booth at the 2010 P&G Health & Fitness Pig Expo for the Flying Pig Marathon this weekend. The booth is located in the center of the action of the expo. Stop by and introduce yourself. On hand will be the club 2010 technical shirt available for sale for the special Flying Pig Expo Price of $10.00. Also, when you sign up in person for the Memorial Day Race 34 at the booth, take $2 off the preregistration price.

Ad Agency Looking for Mascot Runner & Associate Runner for Flying Pig Marathon 5K!
Received the following in the club email this morning:
The Eleven Agency is an event marketing agency looking for a runner to help them with an upcoming promotion. The runner must be someone who enjoys running while having fun too. They are looking for someone to represent a major beverage client of theirs by running the Flying Pig Marathon 5k on May 1, 2010 dressed as the brand’s mascot. The height requirement is 5’7”- 6’2” and maximum weight of 200 lbs. The runner will be participating in the 5K and the Kid’s Final Mile and they are looking for someone who can finish 18:00 – 23:00 for the 5K. The costume is lightweight, breathable and built with the consultation of a marathon runner. The runner will also be given an Under Armour cap to make the run as dry and comfortable as possible. In addition to giving the runner an Under Armour cap, they will pay for the race registration and free product. The runner will be paid $75 to participate in the run as well as $10/hour for the duration of the run and any post event promotion (posing for photos with other runners and spectators). The runner will also receive a $100 bonus from The Eleven Agency if he or she finishes with a medal in his/her category. They are also looking for an associate runner to run with the mascot.
If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Cheryl Villaruz at
cheryl.villaruz@t11a.com or (949) 336-7772.

Club Group Run Update
The club currently has weekly group runs at Hyde Park Square and Fountain Square in
Downtown Cincinnati. Routes are posted for these runs on the club's twitter page and Facebook group. Also, for those interested in doing trail runs, former club President Mike Smith has a group that meets at the Nature Center (Rowe Woods) at 8:00 am usually every Sunday morning. They generally run between 8 - 8:30 miles. Contact Mike for details.

Weekly Group Run Details:

• Wednesday - 6:30 PM Run - Hyde Park Square - meet by the fountain.
  
• Saturday - 8:30 AM Run - Fountain Square - Downtown Cincinnati - meet by the fountain. A few garages in the area offer weekend parking for a $1.00 or you can always park on the street.
  
• Sunday - 8:00 AM - Nature Center - Contact Mike Smith for details.

For more information contact us.

T Shirt Design Contest for Memorial Day Race
Calling all shirt designers! The club is getting a new back design for the Memorial Day Race 34 shirt for 2010. We will take submissions before picking one. Submissions are due May 3. (We plan to get red technical shirts this year to represent the USMC since it was 65 years ago when they stormed Iwo Jima.) Please use no more than two colors. If you need three let us know). Send your submission in either jpg, pdf or vector format to cincinnatirunning@gmail.com. The winning submission gets free entry into the race plus the shirt and whatever other goodies the club has.

Red Brick Run Recap

This race is about 30 years old and is held on the beautiful Miami of Ohio Campus in Oxford Ohio. Although it is an hour away from Cincinnati, it still has the feel of a long drive for a 5K race. The first time that I ran this race was in 1996 and for some reason, I run this race in every even year (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, etc). I continued the trend in 2010. Originally the race was held at 1:30 PM but recently they changed the time to 10:30 AM due to the recent warm April weather. The warmer weather caused the local college male and female spectators to tan themselves on the lawns along the course forcing much leering by passing male and female runners. Leering during a race does not lead to fast race times so they moved it to 10:30 AM.

Since they moved it to 10:30 AM, I have a tendency to be late for the start(remember the hour drive from Cincinnati and it seems like they keep adding more things on US 27 slowing down my drive time even more. I got there just as they were closing registration. They let me fill out a form and off I went. Conditions were sunny but cool.

The course has not changed in the years that I have run it. It features an uphill start by Millett Hall (which I missed some of since I was running late so I went out the sidewalk on Millet to catch up with the other runners). It runs around the Miami of Ohio Campus and you have a downhill finish in front of Millett Hall. I ran it in about 28 minutes but I have to check the results to be sure. Post race ceremony was basic but nice as you had nutrition bars, bananas, water, and sports drink which I believe were courtesy of the local Kroger's. The awards at this race are unique in that you get a red brick for being one the top runners or tops in your age group. Obviously, the bricks would make a great paperweight.

Overall a nice little run with the feel of going to an out of town race. I will probably be back in 2012.

Flying Pig Marathon Volunteer Update

If you plan to help out at the Marathon and definitely would like T-shirt, you have until this Friday April 23 to sign-up(After all they have to sort and get together about 2,000 T-shirts for the various charities, groups and individuals). If you wear a small, sign up now to guarantee yourself a T-shirt. The Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati has a waterstop at mile 22 and we still can use people to help out. Mile 22 is where the marathon really begins for the marathoners and your support and encouragement means plenty to them. If you are running the marathon, please encourage your friends and family to help out. If you're not running, join us for a little fun and help us help the runners at mile 22. To volunteer at our waterstop:

1. Go to the Flying Pig Website Volunteer Page
   
2. Click the Sign-up with registered group
3. Select the Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati, use the password PCC (case sensitive).
4. Fill out the information

If you have any questions or problems, let us know.

New Board Selected for Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati
At the recent Annual Meeting, the membership of the Runners' Club of Greater Cincinnati in attendance approved the following to serve on the club's board for 2010:

President: Todd Hofacre
Vice President: Laura Wagner
Treasurer: Ryan Woolley
Secretary: Gina Meyers
Trustees-At-Large:



• Frank Field
  
• Tom Glasscock
  
• Paul Staudigel
  

If you have any ideas or something that you would like the new board to accomplish for the coming year, attend the next board meeting on Thursday May 13, 2010 at 7:00 PM at the Clifton Recreation Center or email us your idea.