Banquet Recap, WGP Kickoff!

Winter Banquet Recap A great time was had by all at the Village Tavern on Saturday night. It was wonderful being able to relax and celebrate together as COVID restrictions are lifting. Chris Nolin presented the 2021 WGP awards – age group and Iron Runners are listed on our website, but Nikki Hannable née Demars led the women’s overall while Chris himself led the men. We also recognized the club’s obtaining of FOUR bricks at Mill Cities Relays: Male Open, Female Open, Male Masters, and Co-Ed Seniors! Mill Cities team details can also be found on the website. Here are a few pictures but a full set can be found on our website gallery.

Wicked Grand Prix 2022 Kicks Off!
The first race of the 2022 season was held on March 6th at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence. Those that attend Mill Cities will recall this enormous lumbering bar in the middle of the city. At times it attracts hordes of runners, and the start of WGP marked one of those one. Wicked had a great turnout, the series is off to a great start. Those that didn’t make the first race won’t be able to make Iron, but there are plenty of events coming to compete for the age group and overall prizes. You can find out more about WGP and see more pictures of Sunday’s event on our website.

Member Spotlight: Carita Wegner
Some of you may have met one of our newest members, Carita Wegner. Carita is new to the US, having recently moved to Salem from London. If that isn’t interesting enough, Carita has been training for the Marathon des Sables, a seven-day ultra that covers 250KM (155+ Miles) in the Sahara Desert. Yes, you read that right: approximately the distance of six regular marathons in the largest hot desert in the world. The race has various distances per day, the longest one being 91KM (57 Miles). If that isn’t challenging enough, each participant has to carry their own supplies for each day, wearing a pack weighing about 8KG or 17+ pounds. This incredible event is coming up in just a few weeks – starting on March 25! Carita has just completed a 100+ mile week leading up to her final preparations for the race. Carita and her husband Hannu are frequent attendees at Monday’s BackBeat run, where I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know them and learn about this incredible event, albeit I’ve had to struggle with the metric system like most US educated people. Best of luck this month Carita, we’ll all be rooting for you!

Boston Marathon Bus
For those running the Boston Marathon this April, Amy Chruniak and Dan Donato have teamed up to provide luxury motor coach accommodations to take runners to the start line. In years past, this bus has been organized by North Shore Striders, but Amy and Dan picked it up for this year. Wicked, Notch, and Striders were given first access to the bus, but as space is still available it is now open to any runner going to the marathon. Details on the bus were sent in a separate email and are also posted on Facebook. Please let Amy, Dan, or myself know if you’re interested and have other questions. Thanks Amy and Dan!

Wicked @ Notch
Speaking of Notch, you may be aware that Notch Brewery in Salem has a run club. Some runners are members of both Wicked and Notch. Dan (Wicked member and organizer of the Notch club) and myself see benefits of having a positive relationship between the clubs. We have some of this already in the 26×1 and Mill Cities Relays, where we have such dual club runners running on Wicked teams in those events. In fact you can see in the above pictures that Dan was on one of the willing MCR teams. And there has been a similar positive relationship between Wicked and North Shore Striders, as we have shared a marathon bus. Therefore we’d like to have an occasional Wicked @ Notch visit, the first one scheduled for Wednesday March 30th at Notch’s weekly Wednesday run. The run starts at 6:30PM. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Events
All club events (not including regular runs such as the Monday BackBeat run) are shown on our new website’s calendar. Close on the horizon is:

Sunday March 20: USATF Grand Prix Race: New Bedford Half Marathon
Wednesday March 30: Wicked @ Notch visit.
Saturday April 2nd: Wicked Grand Prix Race: April Fool’s 4 Miler
Wednesday April 6th: Board of Directors Meeting