Saturday, March 28, 2009

Ephrata Canal Caper 2009

This 10,000 meter (6.2 mile) run is held every March. When Steve was a Freshman ( I think) he mentioned to me a few days before the event that he wanted to participate. It sort of came out of the blue...he hadn't trained or anything, but I knew he had a lot of energy and thought nothing of it.
He did SO well in the race that shortly afterwards the Cross Country Coach called him and asked him to join the team. That was the beginning of his participation in Track and Cross Country. He was awarded the "Most Inspirational" and the "Team Captain" awards twice during his high school years.
This year he wanted to run with his son. I wasn't there for the beginning of the race this year to take pictures, but it's the end that counts, right?!!

This is Jeffrey at the finish..There were 143 participants and he was # 52 at 58.16 minutes. He said he wanted to run it in under an hour and he did!!

Below, the runner in red across the canal is Steven.

This really brought back memories of watching Steve come in at the finish. When he was in high school he usually collapsed after crossing the finish line...which is nerve wracking for a mother.

After one of the meets I noticed his heart was still beating hard nearly thirty minutes after the race. Following many tests it was concluded that, yes, it does take HIS heart longer to slow down than the usual runner. He was advised to keep moving for awhile after crossing the finish, which he does now. (In High School he had a group of teammates who would run/jog with him after a race).
Steven came in # 77 at 70.34 minutes.

I know this was a special time for Steven, but it was also memorable for me . I never considered I would watch two generations run THIS particular race.
I wish I had been in training too, so it could have been three generations, but I haven't run it since 1996.

These two are winners in our family!!!

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Okay, I specially remember sending an e-mail out to the family back in January that the Canal Caper was coming up and some in my family were running and we wanted as many as possible to join in....it would have been fun to have to go with them.
I love that pic of Jeff and Steve with their arms around eachother. Sweet.

steve hartman said...

I was about 12 or 13 years old and ran the race in Converse canvase basketball shoes, got 3rd place in my age division and a medal, which i still have next to my other medals. Boy was i sore after that race. I could hardly walk for days after that. I told my son Jeff about what i had done and wanted to know if he wanted to join me in running it, but with training and, much to my excitement, he said yes, so we trained for it. It didn't help that i got sick 2 weeks before the race and it was 15 degrees cooler then what i was use to. Oh, well, at least i finished.
Steve "Super Foot"

Barbara said...

Steve, thanks for clarifying my post. I couldn't remember all the details, but I really enjoyed then and now.

Barbara said...

Teresa, it would have taken me a lot longer than three months to train...not YOUR fault, I just haven't been doing what I should be doing all along and keeping in shape. I keep thinking things will slow down and I can set up a regular exercise schedule...and then life happens. It takes me too long to handle the life happenings nowadays. Glad you like the picture. So did I.

Urie's said...

it was so fun to watch steve and jeff run the canel caper. It was like old times. It also turned out to be such great weather too.