by Rick Hart
October 2023
I was fulfilling my Grandpa duties a couple days ago when came across the Dr. Seuss book titled Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! Octember, of course, is the 3 month period of October, November and December. That reminded me that I am overdue in putting together a newsletter.
When looking at race results take notice of how many club members won awards at the Panerathon and Peace Race. It was nice to see Amanda Ford run the Peace Race 10K with her son, Connor McNinch. Congrats to Connor for his 3rd place award in the 14 and under age group. Also, Lori Masters ran with her Mom Kathy Shoaf. Congrats to Kathy for her 2nd place in the 75-79 age group. Last but not least, I want to give a shout out to Jen Trimble for running with her Dad!
Special acknowledgment and congrats to Diane Downey for completing the toughest event in sports. Diane traveled to Quebec to participate in the Mont-Tremblant Ironman. She completed the course in 14:47:14 !
“Diane Downey you are an IRONMAN!” Also special congrats and thanks to Diane’s training partner Dale Carrick, despite being scheduled for hip surgery, managed to complete 130 miles of the 140 mile course before being forced to stop due to time limits. Congrats on a great effort Dale! Diane also participated at the Peace Race and was taking turns pushing a double stroller with her son-inlaw when, near where Mill Creek meets the Mahoning River, the stroller had a wheel come off. I copied the below statement from Diane’s Facebook page:
I love running the Youngstown Peace Race! I love it even more when running it with the granddaughters and my son-in-law, Andrew Smith! It was a busy morning. Ava Mae ran the kids race, Katelyn Smith ran the 2 mile race and came in 2nd in her age group and Andrew and I with the girls ran the 10k. We had a lot of fun even though our stroller had an issue right before mile 5. Luckily, everyone is fine! Thanks to SVTC bike lead David Standley who had a cop make sure we were ok. After a short walk to have Dale Carrick and Kate come pick up the stroller and Addi; Andrew, Ava Mae and I finished the race. Andrew carried Ava Mae on his shoulders the rest of the 1.2 miles! Not exactly how we wanted the race to go but it will be a memory we will never forget.
Diane Downey