The regular meeting of the Nittany Valley Running Club was held on Tuesday, June 3, at the Hi-Way Pizza on Westerly Parkway. In attendance were Boyd Brumbaugh, Marty and Andy Mazur, Mike Casper, Steve Bodner, George Lesieutre, Dave Eggler, Bob Radzwich, and Jim Taylor.

Another full agenda was on tap (as well as some Sam Adams Spring Ale). The committees for the “Big Races” gave their reports. The Art’s Fest race is breathing down our necks and will need plenty of volunteers to direct runners. The Club has decided to invite Roy Sletson, who manufactures the Nittany Powerizer Bar, to provide 600 samples of his (really tasty) product as race packet stuffers. The club will also buy some full-size bars to give out at the end of the race.

The Tussey mOUnTaiNBACK Relay preparations are proceeding apace. The race will offer long sleeve T-shirts this year, appropriate for the Fall season. They will also offer an upgrade to some sort of high-tech wick-wear shirt. We also discussed getting in line for the gravy train that is the hotel and entertainment surcharge. Because the mOUnTaiNBACK attracts many out-of-towners, we can get some financial help in advertising the race. We have to get going now for 2004.

Bad news. It looks like we won’t be doing a Race For The Cure any time soon. It turns out that many more hurdles to jump than we had previously known in order to get affiliated with the sponsoring organization. Unless someone can go through the many motions, we will not pursue it. If you are interested, contact Tom Cali to find out just what is involved. We batted about the possibility of associating with some cancer research other charity (e.g. Relay For Life), or teaming with an out-of-town city that is doing a Race For The Cure. This will probably be discussed again at another meeting.

Remember the Econo-Race series of last summer? What a great series of races. Ten races for which participants would earn points toward a final series award. The races were low cost ($5 including food), and very unusual (One race included a race up and down the Tussey ski slopes.) We spent some time reminiscing. The organizer of the series, John Sherer, has moved to Colorado in the next stage of his Air Force career. It would be great if someone could step forward and organize a similar series, maybe not as ambitious (five races?), and maybe to be held on a weekend morning. There’s still time to do it. Let Marty Mazur or Jim Taylor know.

We discussed the possibility of the Club publishing a jogging trails pamphlet in the spirit of John Lucas’s brochure of some 20 years ago.. More on this in the Club Newsletter.

Two new issues arose. First, weekend club runs. We’d like to get something going this summer. There are numerous groups of friends who run together. Maybe we can marshal these various small platoons together and get a larger social group together. We could explore some of the established routes of the Rec Hall Regulars, as well as each other’s favorite routes and maybe some of the Tussey Mountain roads. All we need is a regular time and meeting place (or a way of communicating the week’s meeting place) and a few organizers who could take turns organizing the group run. I’ll take a stab at it in the Club Newsletter.

The second issue plays into the first and involves the various communication channels for Club members, including the web site Discussion Forum, the NVRUN listserv, and others. More on this in the Club Newsletter.

Finally, we moaned about the fact that the various bike paths in town are pretty much unusable for biking or running for most of the winter because they are not plowed. After a light snow, all that it would take is one pass with a Bobcat and the sun would take care of the rest. As it is, however, even two inches of snow soon gets packed down by pedestrians to a sheet of ice that only gets added to with each new snowfall. Even in relatively snow-free winters, this means weeks of impassibility. Anybody want to organize a letter writing campaign?

Next Meeting: August 5.