January
18, 2008
Embassy
Suites
5:00 p.m. Fun Run
6:15 p.m. Social Time
7:00 p.m. Dinner & Program
 Every
organization needs gala event to celebrate its own, review
the past year, and generally kick up their collective heels.
The Capital Striders are no different and since we run hard,
boy do we know how to play hard!
The Strider Annual Meeting is our opportunity to conduct
Club business before the general membership, elect
board members, etc. - but it's not all business.
If you'd like, start out the evening with a 5K fun run starting
from the Riverfront
YMCA at 5:00 p.m. Showers will be available at the Y after
the run, free of charge, with a photo ID.
Afterward, join the rest of us at Embassy
Suites for social time beginning at 6:15 p.m. Make new
friends or reconnect with old friends you might not have seen
since that last fall race.
Dinner starts at 7:00 p.m. with a short meeting for the election,
awards, and other Club business. Then comes the highlight
of the evening, our speaker, Helen Klein.
 Helen
Klein, a retired nurse, began running at the age of 55
on a homemade track around her front yard and finished dead
last in her first race, a ten miler. Now 84, Helen’s
creed is “Disciplined, determined, dedicated. I always
do my best to finish anything I start.”
She has finished over 100 marathons and over 140 ultramarathons.
She’s finished the Marathon Des Sables, a 145-mile stage
race across the Sahara Desert; the 5-day 100-mile Stage Race
in the Himalayas, and an Ironman Triathlon. Helen is also
the oldest person to complete ultrarunning’s Grand Slam
(four 100-mile races in the same year). Asked why she does
difficult events at her age, Helen says, “I would rather
wear out than rust out.”
In 2002 Helen broke her own marathon PR time of 5:10:04 to
set the record for women over 80 in a blazing 4:31:32!
In October of 2004, Helen Klein completed the Tahoe Triple
Marathon. She ran a marathon a day to complete the 78-mile
loop that circles the lake. She completed this challenging
high-altitude, three-day event 50 days before her 82nd birthday.
For her Ultrarunning prowess, Helen was named Outstanding
USATF Athlete in 1986, 1991, and 1992, and she is one of the
four ultrarunner inductees in the USATF Masters Hall of Fame.
Helen has also won the ESPN Arete Award for courage in sports.
Want to see a little of the fun you've been missing? Here
are some of the great times from previous events...
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