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Ten years of Valley Crest!  What an outstanding 10-years it has been!

Over the years our Men’s course record has improved by almost 10-minutes and the Ladies course record has improved by 16:31! 

After running her first VCHM in 2010, Emily Field returned this year to become the new VCHM Ladies Champion and took 3:51 off the existing Ladies CR improving her time from last year by 4:14! 

The men’s race also had a new Champion in Christian Hesch.  Coming off of his recent 1:06:51 win at Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon, Christian ran a respectable 1:13:11 at his first Valley Crest.  But guess what else?  Christian came to the race early to help set up, won the race, left to go to an important meeting, came back to the race to help load up the Penske truck, and even brought the RD a beautiful bottle of Merlot!  Well done Christian!

In celebration of our anniversary year, we offered prize money to the top three male and female overall finishers: 

1)  Christian Hesch (32) 1:13:11                          1)  Emily Field (29) 1:24:00

2)     2)  Matthew Bond (28) 1:13:41                             2)  Anissa Faulkner (39) 1:32:47

       3)  Juan Valencia (30) 1:16:29                             3)  Natalie Stein (28)  1:32:49 

This year’s race presented perfect running weather for the athletes with temperatures in the low 60s and a light drizzle for most of the race that may have contributed to a large number of runners breaking the two hour barrier on this tough mountain course and some new age division course records:

·         F/25-29      Emily Field - 1:24:00

·         M/30-34     Christian Hesch - 1:13:11  

·         F/50-54      Judy Magure - 1:40:27  

·         M/65-69     Benjamin Coro - 1:36:00

The VCHM is a RRCA State Championship Trail Half Marathon.  Our RRCA Champions are:

·         Christian Hesch (32)               1:13:11 – RRCA Open Champion

·         Emily Field (29)                      1:24:00 – RRCA Open Champion

·         Ricardo Ocampo (40)            1:28:55 – RRCA Master Champion

·         Mary Jones (41)                     1:33:47 – RRCA Master Champion

·         Ron Paquette (53)                 1:31:12 – RRCA Grandmaster Champion

·         Judy Magure (52)                   1:40:27 – RRCA Grandmaster Champion

·         Dona McBride (60)                 2:23:39 – RRCA Senior Grandmaster Champion

·         Benjamin Coro (66)                1:36:00 – RRCA Senior Grandmaster Champion

Our youngest runner, 14 y/o Mickey Giguere, ran an astonishing 1:32:32 to place 24^th overall.  Our oldest runner was 79 y/o Harold Vance; I guess we will need to open an 80+ age division next year!

The VCHM would like to congratulate our two “Legacy Runners” who have finished every Valley Crest Half Marathon:

Harry Pantelas – Harry’s PR on the course is 1:58:08; set when he was 66 y/o.  Harry’s 70+ Male CR of 2:09:35 has held up since 2007

Vic Cohen – Vic has a best of 2:08:30 on the course, run in 2002.  Vic helps the race each year by leading some of the training runs on the course.

Our first Champion in 2002, Robert Leonardo has been a good friend of the race over the years.  He ran all nine races but missed this year since moving back to Mexico.  We will miss Robert at the race and hope to keep in touch with him; he is our Forever Race Champion!

I once read in a race management guide that RDs work for months upon months to plan and prepare every final detail of the race to be sure that nothing goes wrong and then on race morning, turns all control over to a group of strangers!  I am grateful and proud to say that we have the most special family of Volunteers who make this the “Friendliest Race in L.A.”.  From the early morning parking attendants to the course sweepers and everyone in-between, we have the Best Volunteers who come back year after year!  Larry and I owe them all a huge debt of gratitude for making this experience as wonderful as it is.  We also thank Fernando Fernandez and the Reseda High School Cross Country Team for helping with the race.  These are just some of the kids who benefit from the New Basin Blues High School XC Fund that the race supports.  If you would like to know more about this non-profit fund or would like to make a tax deductable donation to put new running shoes on some x-c kids, go to www.newbasinblues.org and link to “X-C Fund”.

I would also like to bring our Sponsors to your attention.  We are fortunate that this year, Fleet Feet Sports Encino came on board as our Shirt Sponsor for the Valley Crest Half Marathon.  As a result, we were able to present beautiful Brooks performance shirts for the first time.  We thank Function Drinks for providing bottles of iced beverage; Gatorade for providing our official race drink; Trader Joe’s for individual bottled water.  Thanks to Moeben, Injinji, Fuel Belt, Superfeet and Runnergy for the Age Division gifts.  We welcome our newest Sponsor  Dr. Neda and Health Clinic of Southern California.  Some of you had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Neda at the Sponsor area after the run.  I hope you will take your beautiful, athletic bodies to Dr. Neda who will help keep you beautiful and athletic for years to come.  Please, please support our Sponsors with your business and tell them you saw them on the Trail Run Events website.  http://www.trailrunevents.com/sponsors.asp.

So now, looking forward to another 10-years… mark your calendar for the next Valley Crest Half Marathon on Sunday, June 10… always the second Sunday of June!

Happy trails,

NSD