Home Playing Xbox ....

Few parents like saying that their 17 year old son is home playing xbox but I meet one that was real happy that his was. When I got an email from a concerned parent (and runner herself) a week ago about a kid getting hit by a car at the Howlin' at the Moon, I thought whoa I have a 17 year old son! It could be me at the hospital not knowing what to do or why it happen.

Well tonight, I meet the young man's dad and he had good news about his son. The boy was banged up but he was home playing xbox and should make a full recovery. What a relief to hear this news, when I first heard what happen and that he was in critical condition, I feared the worst.

It sounds like being young and being great shape saved the day. His little sister said her brother doesn't even touch fried foods. Because no one was at the intersection and other runners removed the glow sticks, the teen ended up crossing the street and got hit. The car was going fast and he almost got out of the way. One leg got over the front of the car but then the car hit him in the shin of the other leg and he landed on the windshield and then bounced over the car.

Then he bounced behind the car for a hundred yards or more. The driver never even hit the brakes before impact. Dad says his son was bummed out because he would of medaled in his age division right behind state champ Chris Schwartz, if he had not gone the wrong way. I told dad that the official results said "DNF" and his son definitely has one of the best "Did Not Finish" stories of all time.

Class: M 10k 15-19 - 10k Male 15-19 10k
1 392 MIRELES, Cesar 19 34:10.7 0
2 442 SCHWARTZ, Christopher 19 38:35.4 +4:24.7
3 433 SCLAFANI, Dustin 15 44:02.0 +9:51.3
4 417 LOCKWOOD, Bryson 16 47:28.4 +13:17.7
5 441 BEARD, Thomas 17 48:35.7 +14:25.0
6 443 RAMIREZ, Joel 15 1:18:33.9 +44:23.2
435 CONDIE, Tyler 17 DNF

It was nice to meet his dad and his little sister (photo) at the McFarland race tonight. We had emailed one another about his daughter (before the accident) but had not actually met before. It was doubly nice to see both of them out there running too.

In a few weeks, the family will be returning to Qatar (where dad works), which is good news because it means his son must be doing well. His daughter was excited about going back and was looking forward to a meet in Egypt. I asked how far it was and she said "Oh it is only a four hour plane ride!". I said "only four hours?" while shaking my head. But I guess it beats the 24 hour trip to Qatar.

So I am very glad I came to the race this evening, I only hope that if I am ever faced with such an incident, that I can handle it as well as the Condies have.

Galvin Wins Again - Dominates the Male 30-39 10k at HATM Too!

For quite some time now, if their is a local race and Galvin shows up, everyone else is running for second place. Of course, Galvin is a two time high school individual state cross country champ from Mcfarland so he has been winning for a long time. He also trains with the McFarland team quite a bit and the Cougars have not beat him yet. If you would like to see where Mcfarland trains, please attend their summer series. Their next race is Tuesday, more info HERE.

Class: M 10k 30-39 - 10k Male 30-39 10k
1 426 GONZALEZ, Galvin 32 33:27.5 0
2 484 DIRKSE, Steve 39 40:03.3 +6:35.8
3 479 BINGHAM, Freddie 35 43:28.0 +10:00.5
4 413 CASTILLO, Pablo 35 47:29.1 +14:01.6
5 419 ROGERS, Thomas 33 48:19.9 +14:52.4
6 395 TREMBLAY, Matt 38 49:09.8 +15:42.3
7 427 GURON, Joseph 31 55:25.6 +21:58.1
8 449 WEBB, Jason 35 56:45.9 +23:18.4
9 421 RAMIREZ, Daniel 37 57:56.7 +24:29.2
10 393 ORANTES, Jose 34 1:01:22.4 +27:54.9
11 379 WEBDELL, Thomas 38 1:06:54.4 +33:26.9
12 458 ESPINOZA, Mario 35 1:08:52.0 +35:24.5
13 300 GONZALES, Armando 35 1:12:45.9 +39:18.4
14 299 CASE, Mike 35 1:15:29.3 +42:01.8

Over 350 Athletes!

The BTC Summer Series is my favorite running event of the year and with cool weather it is even more outstanding. With over 350 competing last night, I guess it is a lot of people's favorite event too.

I like seeing all the young athlete out there because too often our local running races are dominated by a much older crowd. Part of the reason is the younger athletes are competing for their schools during the rest of the year and do not need more races. But I big part is that the races cost too much.

Now I do not mean the race organizers are gouging everyone, it is just when you add in a t-shirt, trophies/medals, announcer, supplies and other costs, there is an overhead. Plus the race does want to raise money for it's cause. What is nice about the summer series is it is cheap ($3 for students, $4 for BTCers and $5 for others)!

Because of all these factors the race has gotten extremely popular. Another reason people like it is us slow people get a chance to beat you fast people! Interestingly, many of the first races fastest ran slower this week. If you cross the line and you see the clock over thirty minutes, you went slower than last time. On the other hand many of the slow people went way to fast (me included) and killed our handicaps.

Though not a handicap race, everyone should go to the McFarland Summer Series races this summer. The course is less than 20 miles away and is a fun challenging course. Plus the proceeds go towards supporting the McFarland High School running teams. The next race is Tuesday the 23rd and the entry fees are the same as the BTC's. To get there take the Porterville Hwy to Sherwood Ave and turn left (westward). The race is up the road a bit on the left hand side.