This article is from the April/May 2006 edition of our club newsletter, Runners Hi. To find out more about the Wyners – including information about their favorite activities – visit http://bellsouthpwp2.net/n/o/normfromfl/.

The River Run 'streakers' among us

 By Ed Hardee

     If you did our Pirates on the Run this year, two stars of North Florida running were in your midst.
   One is Elfrieda Wyner, who could easily be crowned the Queen of North Florida’s Grandmasters. That’s because “Frieda,’’ at age 63, routinely wins age group titles at races near and far. For instance: In this year’s Pirates 10K, she breezed to victory in 45:01, clinching the master’s win for women 40 and over.
   The other is her husband, Norm, who’s 72 years young and also a North Florida running celebrity. That’s because he and Frieda are the only married couple to have completed every Gate River Run. Frieda won her age group in the 2006 Gate with an astonishing time of 1:11:57 – 15 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.

‘Perfect Attendance’
  The Wyners have been written up in the Times-Union, recognized as members of the River Run “Perfect Attendance Club” – and now, we’re proud to say, they’re in Runner’s Hi! They graciously agreed to an e-mail interview from their home in St. Augustine.
   “Over the years, running has been a big part of our lives,” they wrote.
   The couple’s sense of adventure dates back to the 1970s, when they met through flying. It was a perfect match: She had a pilot’s license, and he had a flight school in Jacksonville.
   When they married 32 years ago, Norm was already a runner, for health and weight control. Frieda’s recreational sport was tennis. Then in 1976, when Norm was planning to do the Summer Beaches Run, Frieda decided (three days beforehand) to join him. At first she ran just for enjoyment, then began training for competition.
   The rest is running history – and an important date in that history is 1978, when the Jacksonville Track Club decided to launch a 15K event that highlighted the St. Johns River.

There at the beginning
  “We were impressed with the very first River Run,’’ the Wyners remembered. “It was designed by Buck Fannin and other JTC officers to be a major running event. The distance, course, and invited runners all resulted in achieving that goal.”
   Whereas more than 10,000 runners registered for the 2006 version, back in Year 1 “there were 2,204 participants; 1,962 men and 242 women, so you can see that women's running wasn't very strong then. Frieda was on the JTC board of directors at that time and worked packet pickup up to a few minutes before the gun went off. Frieda finished second in her age group in 72:50.”
   They didn’t set out to become “streakers” at first. “Before the 15th River Run in 1992, we were featured in a story in the Times-Union as being the only couple to have run every River Run. That gave us the impetus to maintain that honor. After 20 years, the race directors came up with the ‘streaker’ concept and kept records on who they were."

Especially tough
  As you can imagine, it’s tough enough for one person to maintain a 29-year streak – let alone a couple.
  “Frieda ran the 10th River Run with bacterial food poisoning,” the Wyners wrote. “The 16th River Run was held after a one-day postponement due to extreme weather conditions; temperature 22 degrees, winds 40 mph. Lots of runners didn't stay over until the next day to complete the run.
   “Norm once volunteered to work the start of the run. After all the runners had left the starting area, Norm (who had pre-registered) went back to our vehicle, put on running attire, and completed the race.” Their River Run PRs are just one second apart -- 58:48 for Norm in 1984, 58:49 for Frieda in 1983.
   The Wyners have another streak going, too -- they've competed in all three Pirates on the Run 10Ks held in Fernandina Beach, including the race this past February. (There's more about that in the Amelia Island Runners' April/May newsletter; the link is below.)
   And what about Gate River Run 2007? That’ll be the event’s 30th anniversary. On the Wyners’ website, they have some advice: “Start getting ready right now for what may be the greatest day of your life.”