Summer Arrives

The last few weeks have brought us some interesting weather. First the winter just didn’t seem to want to let go, then we had a series of quite windy days, and this weekend, well yeah, summer showed up suddenly just to remind us that running in the dark and cold for months isn’t that bad after all. Well as the adage goes you never know what the weather is going to be on race day so best to just get out there in all of it. Inside is another story, we have the A/C going already. For the rest, read on for some club updates.

Track with Fernando Braz On-site track with Fernando Braz started 3 weeks ago, and it is going incredibly well. We have a growing crowd of faces on Tuesday night, from long-time to several new members. Fernando and Peter are doing an outstanding job working with groups and especially with those that are either new to track or haven’t been there in a while. If you’ve never tried track, I highly encourage you to give it a try. I guarantee it will make you a stronger runner. Plus it’s great fun being out there with other club members. There is a write-up on our website that will tell you what to expect. Track happens every Tuesday at 6:30PM at Beverly High School, from now until mid-October. Watch your email and our Facebook page for any late announcements (we aim to have track each week but sometimes we do cancel for weather or other reasons).

Wicked Grand Prix There’s a lot going on with WGP, and committee leaders Chris Nolin and Kevin Power are doing a fantastic job. The current standings and list of upcoming races can be found on our website. On May 1st, Wicked had a great showing at the Step Up for Colleen 5K in Andover. It was an absolutely perfect morning to enjoy the mix of roads and trails for this great cause. Below are a few of the pictures we took, but apparently, we made an impression on the local news, as you can see several Wickeds in this broadcast video from WHDH. The only explanation I have is that they must have been on the lookout for great looking people to put in the video. Of course we were happy to oblige.

Our next event is the HAWC (Healing Abuse Working for Change) 5K in Salem on Sunday, June 5th. This is for another great cause, raising funds for services and survivors of domestic violence. When you sign up, please make sure to select our team, “Wicked Running Club”.

Finally, also in June (Saturday June 25th) we will return to Hormel Stadium in Medford for the 26×1 Club Challenge Relay. Watch your email for more information on this event.

USATF
The next race in the USATF series is the Vermont City Marathon on Sunday May 29th. This event is quite popular in New England – many running clubs will be up for a great weekend. Ourselves, we have several Wickeds heading up to either run the full marathon or the relay. So we should have some exciting updates coming out of that event!

Other Races
Wicked puts a lot of effort into our race series (WGP and USATF). That means we unfortunately are not always able to organize teams for other great, and very worthy, races on the northshore. If any member sees a race that isn’t on our WGP or USATF list, and would like to organize a Wicked team, please send me an email and I can include that in these communications. Or, if you just have a race that you strongly support, I’m happy to spread the word here. As always, we encourage members to get more involved in the club, and volunteering to be the lead on such a race team organization is an easy way to get started. This week, I have a few such notices.

• The Running and Walking Well 5K race on Saturday, June 11th  in Lynnfield is raising funds to build wells in Africa. Exclusive Escapes owned by Eileen Spear, is a sponsor for this race, and also has been a long-term sponsor of Wicked’s Miles Over The Moon and F4 races. So if you are looking for a 5K on the 11th, this would be a good choice.
• Several people have asked me about the Salem 10K on Sunday September 11th. A Wicked Team is established with Kristen Barry as the captain.

Physical Therapy Workshop
We have been contacted by a PT out of Marblehead, Allison Riley, owner of  Stride PT and Wellness. She is an independent PT that specializes in lower extremity injuries, pregnant and postpartum exercise, and performance/injury prevention programming. She has offered to host a free workshop for Wicked, covering topics such as strengthening for runners, safely improving running efficiency, connecting with your core for runners, and returning to running post partum. We have penciled this in to occur on Tuesday June 21st, before track starts at BHS. If you are interested in attending such a workshop, please send me an email.

Sea of Red
We’d like to re-establish our “Sea of Red”visits to other running clubs / events on the northshore. For May, we’d like to return to Notch Brewery on Wednesday May 25th. Several of us were at Notch in March and had a great time. As we’ll have runners at 26×1 who are both Wicked and Notch members I think it would be great to get back together before the relay in June. Hope to see you there!

Celebrations
Members continue to reach new running goals, and we are more than happy to celebrate with them. Nicole Goggin set a new PR on her 3rd marathon, and has her sights set on the New York City Marathon this fall! Mike Paulin‘s results at the Boston and New York City Marathons have earned him an invitation to the 2022 Abbott World Marathon Major in London! Suzi Clements achieved a 3:34PR at the Fast Half in Hamilton, and Jill Hathaway was first in her age group at the Wells ME 5K. Great job everyone!

This of course is just a sampling, I’m sure there is much more going on in the club. Please don’t be shy about these, please send your news our way!

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

• Wednesday, May 25: Sea of Red visit (Notch Brewery)
• Sunday, May 29: Vermont City Marathon
• Sunday June 5: HAWC 5K
• Saturday, June 25: 26×1 Club Challenge