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Sports Activities Around Fernandina Beach
October 4, 2008
Account by Ed Hardee
Photos by Ed Hardee, John McBrearty, Emilie Pennington, and Rosa Haslip.
Triathlon Start
Men's start of the Atlantic Coast Triathlon
(half-Iron distance)		 Sean McGill
AIR member Sean McGill (right)
finishes the ACT.
Bruce Dunham It was another big, beautiful day for running (and swimming, and biking) on Oct. 4 in and around Fernandina Beach.

The big local event was the first Atlantic Coast Triathlon and Ameliaman Triathlon. Details and results are at www.drcsports.com.

Congratulations to all of our club members who participated, as volunteers or competitors! Among our AIR finishers in the ACT long course event (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run!) were Bruce Dunham (shown at left), Deborah Dunham, Melissa Marker and Sean McGill.

Among our finishers in the Ameliaman Olympic distance triathlon (.93-mile swim, 24.7-mile bike, 6.2-mile run) were Kristi Garber and Vann Simmons (shown finishing at right).

 Vann Simmons

Bike Start
Bicyclists begin their ride after leaving the transition area
(behind them in the picture).		 Mayor Bruce Malcolm
Fernandina Beach Mayor Bruce Malcolm
and Jane Marie Malcolm at the bike start/finish area.

Steve & Bill AIR was also represented well at two races in the area Saturday – the Rock Shrimp 5K/10K in St. Marys, GA, and the Marine Corps half-marathon and 5K in Jacksonville.

Among our AIR runners in St. Marys were Steve O’Brien and Bill Pennington (high-fiving each other after the race). Our other finishers: in the 5K, Tyler Clements, 14-and-under, 33:41; Shelly Davies, 30-39, 29:00; Blake Hankwitz, 14-and-under, 26:15; and Gladwin Ulitalo, 60-69, 40:21, second in her age group. And in the 10K, Steve O’Brien, 50-59, 42:54, 1st place age group, 1st overall; Bill Pennington, 50-59, 44:53, 2nd place age group, 2nd overall; and Jim Strozinsky, 40-49, 54:22, 3rd place age group. Complete race results are now posted; if we missed you, please let us know!

And it was a great AIR day at the Marine Corps, with Gary Haslip winning the Freedom 5K masters (see photo below). Proud wife Rosa notes that Gary also finished fifth overall! Rosa, who took 3rd in her age group in the half-marathon (out of 84 finishers), gives a race report:

Gary Haslip “It was a beautiful day to run! A group of AIR runners gathered at the Beaumont motorhome for pre-race warm-up and post-race cool-down. It was motivating to see all the Marines helping along the course at water stations or at the turns. Thinking about what they do every day, made it a little easier to keep pushing along each mile!

“There were other exciting finishes from the AIR group -- Bill Beaumont and Tarla Millar both placed 2nd in their age groups! Kathy Duprey ran her first half-marathon and finished 16th out of 84 in her age group! Brett Opalinski ran a 7:25 pace, finishing 15th in his age group! Jim Hill placed 11th in his age group running a 7:51 pace. If he keeps this up he'll be buying a plane ticket to Boston soon!”

Look for a complete list of AIR finishers in the December issue of our club newsletter, Runner’s Hi. Race results are at http://www.1stplacesports.com/marine08res.htm.