Bob and Lenore Dolphin...the Dolphin Marathon Team!! |
As always, I
enjoyed participating in the Yakima River Canyon Marathon (YRCM) on April 6,
2013. This year was the 13th
annual event, and there were 20 of us runners/walkers who have finished all of
them.
On race
morning I joined a busload of early starters at the Selah Civic Center Race
Headquarters for the 35-mile drive to Ellensburg and the start of the
marathon. At 6:00 a.m. I started the
race, and we all crossed the timing mat in pre-dawn darkness.
Dr. Mitch
Hungate, my dentist and friend, was nursing a minor back injury, so he walked
with me for most of the way. We visited
a lot, and the early miles quickly passed by.
I learned much about his experiences as an iron-man triathlete and
mountain climber and will treasure these special hours with him. Tragically, this was his last race. He was killed in an avalanche the next
Saturday while snow-shoeing near I-90’s Exit 47 on Snoqualmie Pass.
When the 8:00
a.m. “regular starters” began passing us, Chuck Engel, 42, of Coos Bay , Oregon ,
was in the lead. He finished as the
third, consecutive winner of the YRCM with a time of 2:45:03. Steve Geertgens, 44, of Seattle finished in second place with a
2:53:49, and Rick Becker, 58, of Selah came in third with a 2:56:03. Richard Le, 44, of Bellevue set a new wheelchair course record
with a time of 1:23:23.
The winner for
the women was Julie Gilchrist, 45, of Missoula ,
MT with a time of 3:12:55. In second place was Aleah Mickelson, 35, of Yakima who ran a close race to finish in 3:15:45 and beat
Gretchen Bodeen, 32, also of Yakima
who ran a 3:15:48.
As the runners
in the main field passed me, I appreciated those who greeted me and wished me
well. Rich Menzel, 70, of Everett , WA finished with
a time of 5:55:36, and Don “The Rev:” Kienz, 57, of Exton , PA
had a time of 7:33:50. Both of them came
back onto the course to accompany me in my last miles. The headwind that slowed everyone affected my
progress as well. I crossed the finish
line with a time of 9:33:42, 391st of 392 finishers and 2nd
in the 80+ Male Division.
We were
privileged this year to have Bart Yasso from Runners World Magazine as the
guest speaker at the Friday night pasta feed.
For years his assignments have included participation in unusual races
all over the world. He writes about his
adventures and uses his photographs in his slide-show presentations. As always, the audience was entertained by
his humor and exotic subject matter.
In spite of
the headwind on the course, it was a weekend of fun that included another
reunion for the 100 Marathon Club North America
and a race on an awesome course for over 400 runners, walkers and wheelchair
participants.
Written
by Bob Dolphin
Edited,
Typed and Distributed by Lenore Dolphin
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