UCAR > Communications > Staff Notes > October 1998 Search


October 1998 EXTRA!

Up the hill
by foot, bike . . .
or tube


When we say that this year's up-the-hill race featured a bunch of tubers, we aren't talking couch potatoes. The 1998 divisional relay featured inner tubes that each runner had to wear and then transfer to his or her successor.

Showing ACD's winning form in the relay race, Elliot Atlas (left) hands off to Chris Cantrell near the finish line.

Anything to summon a poolside ambience was welcome, as race-time temperatures climbed well into the 80s Fahrenheit. The heat prompted several male relayers from RAP to run shirtless, their chests emblazoned with the division's initials in purple.

These three keep their divisional loyalties close to their chests. From left: Matt Rogers, Scott Landolt, and Eli Karplus.

The F&A relay team featured one nine-months-pregnant runner (Rebecca Oliva) and another runner acompanied by her infant in a stroller (Anita Monk-Ryan with daughter Samantha).

ACD's unbeatable combo of high participation (42%) and speed (6:03) made them this year's relay champion. CGD and RAP also notched impressive times, while HAO and SCD brought out 53% and 44% of their staff, respectively.

Ack! With Bill the Cat scaring up runners for HAO, the division came in tops in participation. Flanking Bill are Keith MacGregor and Kitty Ferguson. Team captain Paul Charbonneau got the idea to include the Berke Breathed creation in honor of Bill Roberts, the HAO software engineer who died in August, so that Bill could complete one more up-the-hill race in spirit. "It was a good rallying point for HAO," says Kitty.

According to Becky Ruttenberg, SCD upped its participation rate by auto-enrolling the entire division so that nonparticipants had to "un-sign-up" through a Web form. "Not everyone was amused . . . but we did get 42 people in the race. Last year, Steve Hammond said that he'd wear a dress if we got 40 people to sign up, and we got only 21 in the race."

Despite the torrid temperatures, lead times in the foot and bike races remained as impressive as in years past. The closest finish was in the women's bike race, where Reyna Meenk (F&A) edged out CGD's Christine Shields by only one second (8:02 and 8:03). They were followed by Edeltraud Leibrock, wife of ACD's Bernhard Mayer. Rolling in at 5:34, Rodney James (SCD) achieved the bike race's fastest ascent in three years, just ahead of Blake Caldwell (a budding racer and son of SCD's Ginger Caldwell) and perennial bike-race champ Alan Hills.

It was a near-photo finish for Reyna Meenk, who finished just ahead of Christine Shields in the women's bike race.

Rodney James coasts to the finish line.

Andrew Crook (MMM/RAP) dashed to his eighth foot-race title with a time of 8:05, one second shy of his winning time from last year. ASP's Wendy Welch handily won the women's foot race at 10:57.

Above:
Another year, another victory for ace runner Andrew Crook.

Left:
Wendy Welch paces the female runners.

When the ascents were complete, racers and spectators adjourned to the ML tree plaza, re-NCAR-nated as a German beer garden with food, drink, and music. --BH

For complete results, go to the EAC race page. (Note: This page is accessible only from within UCAR.)

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Edited by Bob Henson, bhenson@ucar.edu

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