The Prickly Pear 10 Mile and 50K for 2005 is in the books. As the rain came down and the skies threatened on race day morning, I hoped we wouldn’t have the gully-washing lightning storm we had in last year’s races and that my flour trail markings, along with my enthusiasm, would not dissolve. Low and behold the rain stopped and the skies became partly cloudy before the start of both races, albeit a bit humid and warm.
The 10 mile race started with 249 folks, which is considerably more than we’ve had in previous years. Efrain Velasquez was the first to break the tape with a 58:15, followed by Keith Dowland posting a 1:03:34 then Edgardo Gonzales at 1:06:27. Velasquez time of 58:15 is considerably fast given the twists and turns on these single track dirt trails that wind through tall oak trees. Any time someone can put up a sub 6 minute pace in the Pear 10 miler they are taking it up a notch. The women’s top runners were Wendy Terris for the second year in a row with a time of 1:06:42, Felicia Leroy came in with a 1:19:27, followed by San Antonio’s RTR ironwoman diva Holly 'The Hollister' Vreeke with 1:22:59.
The 50K men’s race, which started with 81 runners and had 58 finishers due to the heat and humidity, was won for the 2nd time in 3 years by Paul Frost, with a time of 3:57:55. Paul was followed by Gary Moroney 4:27:06 and Joe Tammaro rounding off third overall with a 4:38:12. Bridgett Dur-Herrington took the first place prize in the women’s 50K with a time of 5:03, second went to Teresa Barnicki who posted a 5:05; and RTR ultra queen Marissa Toland came in 3rd with a time of 5:11. Marissa won the Rocky Hill Ranch 50K three weeks prior. Her friend, Bret Chitlins, sustained a minor foot injury and was handed a DNF. In the Pear of ’03, he “boinked” and had to scratch. After that everyone made fun of him for saying “boink” instead of “bonk.” I’m above making fun of people.
As the race director for the 4th year in a row, I feel like the Prickly Pear is finally becoming a real race. I know there is some fine-tuning that needs to be done but we are getting decent crowds and everyone seems to genuinely enjoy the course, the aid stations, and the post-race party which are my goals. The only reason this is happening is due to the support staff which is comprised of my friends and family who made this year's event successful. The first person I want to thank is my wife Karen Kolivosky who is 8.99 months preggers. She helped with t-shirts, aid station groceries, kept all aid stations supplied on race day, and put up with my crap the weeks leading up to the race. She is an awesome wife and co-RD and I’m extremely lucky to have her. The second person I want to thank is Steve Vreeke. He was with me the whole time preparing the course for this years run and came up with helpful ideas that really made the run more professional. Without his input I know there would have been many more justified negative critiques from runners as to how to improve for next year. With his help we took the run to a new level this year and he made race week a lot of fun. Whitney Lawrence, the SARR prez, is a trail marking genius and he made all of our wooden boot mile markers by hand. A major improvement upon the cheesy pie plate mile markers of years past. The aid station folks were huge as they are every year. At #1, for the third year in a row we had Joe and Jill Sulak of Peak Fitness and their friends; at two RGR running store held down the fort along with Tony Mathison who drove down from Brownwood (5 hrs) specifically to volunteer for the race. Tony was flying solo at aid station 2 until the last place runner came in needing a little help. He ran the remaining 7.5 miles in with this person, helping her run walk the entire way. Tony gets my vote for the volunteer of the day. Aid station three had Ernie Oakes, Jim 'Wholetjimout' Piekarski, and Lauren. Jim and Ernie ran errands, entered data and made PBJs the day before the race, which kept me from making a thousand PBJ’s and throwing myself off of a water tower. Aid station four was our medical aid station with naughty nurse Deanna Salvo-Benge and naughty doc Shawn Zarr (Dr. Z) who provided some unexpected psychotherapy. Drew Kappus ran the grill, slinging fajitas for the 4th year in a row with the help of Reade Ahrens, Mitch Foley, Sylvia Kolivosky and Linda Kappus. SARR members Leonard Kalinowski and Bob Ratliff were also a big help on race day helping with race day registration and other important tasks. My freinds Mike 'Mel Chorka' Chicka and Al 'Adeerafemaledeer' Adair were very helpful as well. My mommy, Mary Garman, is the creator of the cactus prints given to the over all winners for the last 4 years and has done an outstanding job on them. I also would like to thank the following sponsors for their generous donations: San Antonio Road Runners, Dos Equis, Gatorade (at all aid stations), IAAP (Jose is the caballero), Peak Fitness, Hammer Gel, Fleet Feet, Courtyard Mariott, Casey Family Programs, Pone running hats, and Brooks running shoes. It really does take a village.
It’s time to close the book on this puppy and get ready to become a dad.