Trail Hawks meeting for the Hawk Marathon/50/100 Mile Race

Aug. 7, 2012 by Colinda "Cat Hawk" Thompson

Attending: Coleen, Danny, Justin H., Justin D., Karen, Jeff, Nicole, Chris, Caroline, Gary & Colinda

Danny and Coleen are co-race directors and discussed what they have planned and the timeline of events for the Hawk trail race. Danny and Coleen discussed their plans for course marking the Hawk race. Coleen stated she will do as much course marking as she can on that Thursday right before the race. Gary stated he can help that evening. The Gal Gallop runners will be asked to help out also. On Friday morning Coleen will mark the start/finish out to Lake Henry since it’s the most heavily traveled portion of the trail. The Wednesday night group will be asked to mark the Cactus Ridge section that night also. Chris W. mentioned that he can possibly help out that Wednesday night also. There will be a clean up/trash & tree trimming “run” a week or two before the race.

On Friday starting at noon, there will be a short packet pick up at Garry Gribbles. Danny stated that he needs to be at Clinton Park Lake by 4 p.m. that day. The pre-race briefing will be from 6-6:45 p.m. followed by the meal. They will have a few giveaways (raffle) including some gift certificates from Garry Gribbles and free race entries to Heartland, Rockin’ K, and Psycho Wyco.

Coleen, Danny and Chris will plan on camping at the race headquarters that night. There will be a small breakfast for race entrants before the race at the start/finish area. The runners’ crew members and their family can eat with a small donation fee.

The 50 and 100 milers begin their race at 6 a.m. at the Big Shelter at Corps of Engineers. There will be an aid station close to that area also. We need a time recorder at the shelter. Also, volunteers are needed to direct runners up Sander’s Mound and one at the top of the mound (possibly until the marathoners are finished). There will need to be a hole punch for people to punch their bibs at the top of Sander’s Mound. It was determined that no hole punch is needed at the top of Bunker Hill though. Gary stated he will be at Land’s End. He will have 2 tents, tables, ice, and food there. Since there are a few walkers in the marathon, they may need someone at Cactus Ridge for 8 hours. Also, they will need volunteers on the Marina road.

Marathoners will start at 7 a.m. They will run a section of the Nature Trail to get in their extra mileage to reach the marathon distance.

The Kansas Ultrarunner’s Society will have an aid station on West Park Road. They have their own volunteers.

The cutoff time is 32 hours (2 p.m. on Sunday). There are eighteen 100 milers signed up at this point.

The finisher awards are as follows:

The 100 miler finishers will all receive a special buckle; with the sub 24 hour finishers receiving one type of buckle and the 24-32 hour finishers receiving a different buckle. The 100 miler 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners (male and female) will receive jackets with their finish time embroidered on the jackets. The 50 miler 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place runners (male and female) will receive special mugs. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place marathon finishers (male and female) will receive special mugs also. It was discussed that the rest of the marathon finishers may receive either a more standard mug or a medal (or both). (I was unclear if medals are given to the rest of the 50 miler finishers also).

There will be short sleeved tech t-shirt for all runners. We will have male and female versions. Alo type shirts were quoted with the price being $16 with printing per shirt. Champion quoted a price of $15 with printing per shirt. The printer is American Impressions Sportswear.

We will have cotton t-shirts for the volunteers that commit to an 8 hour shift. They are $8 per shirt (which includes shipping and printing). We will order extra to sell. Packets will be in manila envelopes for the 50 and marathon runners. The 100 milers will have the green/gold Trail Hawks bags for their packets.

It was discussed that Land’s End needs 3-4 volunteers for the 1st 8 hours and then 2 volunteers that night. The start/finish will need 3 people there during day and 2 people at night.

We need a course sweep volunteer. Also, we need some volunteers for demarking the course the week after the race. There will be no spider wranglers this year. The aid stations have to check 100 milers in and out of their sites with the runners’ times and bib numbers so we can keep track of the runners on the course.

Caroline suggested asking for volunteers from the fraternity houses on the KU campus like she did for the Shoreline Shuffle race. There will need to be a volunteer briefing.

The marathon and 50 mile runners will not have any pacers. the 100 mile runners can pick up their pacers at mile 50 and afterwards.

Coleen stated she is testing out some PVC type glow-in-the-dark course markers.

There are several Runner’s Edge marathoners coming from Colorado and Kansas City. They will be allowed a 10% discount on the race entry.

Chris and Danny will look into media promotion. Chris will contact the KC Star and KPR. Coleen mentioned that she has contacts at the Pitch, Ink, KKFI & KCUR.

We need 4 tents total. Caroline and Chris both have one each. We have 5-6 water jugs. We have two 6 foot tables and two 4 foot tables to use. We need extra coolers though. There will be a “coffin” cooler and a cooler of beer at the start/finish area.

Coleen (or Justin D) will purchase extra coolers, water jugs and maybe some walkie talkies.

We’ll need a “gopher/runner” driving around to check aid stations for extra ice, food, etc.

Coleen said that if it’s really hot she may call and get the price for an ice truck. Also, Danny mentioned having a slip & slide at the finish.

Chris W. agreed to be the race photographer.

Gary stated that he reserved the shelter for Saturday and Sunday already. Danny will reserve the shelter for Friday night also.

Meeting adjourned.

Recorded by, Colinda Thompson, Secretary

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