SID Report: 10/3/07: 24 Hour run, Many Mountain Bikers in top ten, Nina Bell

First Annual 24 hour race recap, Introducing Nina Bell, and Mountain bike pre-National report

Some people sponsor a 24 hour run to raise money; some organize the event for runners to prove how bad they are – they can run a long ways, they can run at night, neither rain nor sleet nor snow, blah blah blah.

Warren Wilson Athletic Department organized their first 24 hour run this weekend for the pure de fun of it---teams came together to commune with each other instead of duke it out with other schools; staff and faculty came together to prove we’re not dead yet; dogs strutted around in a category of their own; Cathy Kramer didn’t have to talk to any fans about being inappropriate, and there were no refs or fouls or pushing at the start line.

Anybody could participate. No one would be left in the woods alone. There were radios and check off lists and WFR’s and tweeters everywhere. Fathers walked the three-mile loop with their daughters, couples did the loop in between laundry loads, single ladies ran with their dogs, two ladies named Betty ran together at midnight.

Each of our fall sports teams was on the board for 24 hours of activity (except mountain bikers, they were out of town) and there was a category for freelance runners—anyone who showed up and got sucked into the fun vortex of having a person every half hour or so take off up suicide ridge, down Warren Wilson trail, out to the Outward Bound fields to a snack table-music-first aid station, then back across dogwood to the soccer fields for
bananas, granola bars, a bucket of ice and a massage.

Jason Michaels and Brit Farthing (outdoor program guys) put together the experience with 2 round the clock first aid stations, and two massage tables with 3 masseuse/trainer types on board (thanks Shane, Thomas, Chief and his crew).

There were glow sticks along the trail, flags and arrows marking the route, a jam band (Mantra) that could be heard from dogwood, bringing the delusional delirious runners in, a late night movie (Just Running which is actually about bob sledding) going on, dinner for the whole school on the field, and $180 worth of late night pizza.

Some team members signed up under duress--soccer players, with no games, were heavily coerced into participating; the cross country team helped pull the whole thing off, cause they are crazed wild people, and even Wild Bill’s basketball boys came out for a spin or two in the woods.

To mentions: in the first annual 24 hour Run held this weekend were:

Tony the Tiger Wilburn ran in the woods for the first time in his life in his 40 pound basketball shorts – he said it was the most frightening thing he’d ever done (we don’t know if it was the shorts or the threat of bears and lions coming after the tiger).

Anne Lundblad--- of Lundblad and Lundblad, local national ultra marathon champion couple-- was spooked by three high school hoodlums. She was a little startled, but she’d seen worse.

Rachel Schonberg’s visiting mom ran a lap for the soccer team at 6:30 in the morning, as did Rob Shook’s wife--just when we thought he couldn’t get any cooler. He knows all the words to rap songs, he’s already taught the gym crew to run the soccer table computer and he shows up with his cool running wife.

Bryan Hill ran just for the heck of it in the freelance category in Chacos and Carharts;

Also, in a category of their own, the campus dogs (Bagel, Mason, Cooper, Joey, Leena, Mougley, Fitz, Kai, LW, Rosie, and Bogey--although word is that Stacey’s little dog cheated and took a shortcut) ran 19 laps, ranking them above the men’s soccer team, but more about that below.

Jason split the cross-country team into A and B division, with the A division taking the win – even though the event was fun based, not competition based, some people just have to show off.

Total in mileage covered through out the 10 am Saturday to 10am Sunday run for each team is below:

Cross Country A team – 54 laps – 162 miles (50 miles by Kevin Lane);
Cross Country B team – 43 laps – 129 miles;
Staff and Faculty Super stars – 41 laps – 123 miles;
Women’s Soccer – 36 laps – 108 miles;
Freelance Runners – 25 laps – 75 miles (27 miles by Brian Wright);
Staff and Faculty dogs – 15 laps (45 miles, 180 trees marked, one squirrel scared out of it’s wits);
Men’s Soccer – 13 laps (but they ran three at a time, so they totaled 117 miles-no after dark runs);
Men’s Basketball – 12 laps (and many of those in fear, so that’s worth like 50 miles or something).

And from your proud and fit staff and faculty: Anne L and Natasha – 4 laps, Mark L, Stacey, Annie, Weesie, Ed, Britt, Cathy Kramer, and Lightning – 3 laps (2 of Litning’s at 3am), Tracey, Evan, Shaun - 1 lap, Christine Swoap, JB, Natalie – 2 laps, David Moore camped out and took the 3:45-6am shift. Go teamsters!

Total miles run by a variety of Warren Wilsonites, on the trails painstakingly maintained by our infamous and fabulous trail crew: 897 (according to how you count the bball men, and not counting all the folks that were unsigned up friends of the runners)

Introducing the new Athletic department volunteer:

Nina Bell is not only the first volunteer ever to serve in the athletic department; she may be the first person to come to WWC who’s never been anywhere else.

Well, she’s been somewhere: She worked 18 years at the University of Kansas in the Business Department; she was 3 years in a nurses clinic in the local school district, she raised four kids, including her daughter Stephanie (the fantastic book store guru) in Kansas, and was one of seven kids…in Kansas.

Nina Bell had never lived anywhere outside of Lawrenceville, Kansas before she moved to the Swannanoa Valley. She said it sounded like you could come here and do pretty much what you wanted. That’s what Stacey thought too until Nina came along and is teaching her right from wrong, telling when her to take a break, calling her on her sometimes colorful Florida language.

Nina is an incredible addition to DeVries gym – running books, numbers, horses (I’m just kidding about books and horses, but she can shoot a mean game of craps), corralling the coaches and gym crew members and people who wander in and out all day.

Go see her. She loves flowers and chocolate.

Mountain Bikers at Lees-McRae take first for the women and top ten in all races

Lees-McRae College, future host of Mountain Bike Nationals, hosted the meet this weekend with the women’s field seeing three Wilson riders in the top ten: Kylie Krauss in 1st Camille Prevost in 9th, Hanna Waldman in 10th.
Maxx Cohen finished 10th in the men’s B, one of the largest fields of the season.
Lexy Lewis finished 6th, Ben West 23rd in the A Division and Maxx and Scott finished 5th and 7th respectively in the B.
Ashlee Robinson took 2nd place in women’s and Camille Prevost finished 8th.
In the dual slalom races Lexy finished 7th in the A’s and Scott Andersen finished 5th in the B’s.
Ashlee Robinson duked it out again and again with something like a billion different Lees-MacRae women, who dominated the race (seeing as it’s their home course and all), but she finished strong in 4th.
The cross-country course was about as grueling as a course could get. Matt Williams finished an impressive 9th, a first for Wilson men. Linden and Ben took 16th and 22nd.
Kylie took another 1st in the women’s cross country, and four other Wilson women finished in the top ten: Camille in 5th, Becca in 8th, Lauren Parker in 9th, and Tally Windquist in 10th. Vanessa Emery, racing her first A cross-country race, finished strong in 11th.
The Wilson B men had three in the top ten: Maxx in 5th, Aaron in 8th, and Eli in 9th.
Overall, the Cycling Owls had a very strong showing, which suggests good things might be right around the corner at Nationals in October.

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SID Report: 10/3/07: 24 Hour run, Many Mountain Bikers in top ten, Nina Bell