RunTex, The Runner's Store – Heard Around The Lake: News, Notes and Idle Gossip

That Cassie Henkiel, a personal trainer and coach, has a loyal following is an understatement. Some of her clients and friends teamed together with three local businesses to raise money so that Henkiel could go to a part-time status at her job at Castle Hill Fitness and concentrate for the next five months on training for the Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston in April. Two West Austin businesses—1379 and Bettysport—had “Cassie Day” last month where each contributed 30 percent of their sales that day to Henkiel’s training fund. Teo’s Gelato also made a contribution. “This will allow me to really focus on my training for the Trials,” said the 37-year-old who qualified for the Trials with a time of 2:44:55. “The Austin community has been incredibly generous and supportive to grant me this athletic opportunity.”
Kelly Handel might just be the fifth Central Texas woman to qualify for the Olympic Trials Marathon. Handel, a professional triathlete (she won the Austin Triathlon in September), has never run marathon, but has a half-marathon best of 1:18:34 which translates to a 2:45-2:46 marathon. (Qualifying is 2:47.) The 30-year-old Indiana native has the wheels to do it, but is a little short on road-racing experience. “Usually I’m coming off a bike so I’m not that used to going out aggressively in open road races,” Handel says. “If I can boost my training, I may give it a try at the AT&T Austin Marathon.” Handel is one of the favorites in the Decker Challenge 20-K on Sunday.
Speaking of Decker, Paul Seals is running the Double Decker (24.8 miles for those scoring at home) on Sunday to commemorate his running roots. He did the first Decker race (which fell on Valentine’s Day) .The following year (1979), the race moved to October and the course was expanded to the Double. “We didn’t have any traffic control back then,” says Seals, an attorney, who has run in all but two of the prior 28 Deckers, “so we ran counter clockwise. The race finished at the park entrance near Hog Eye Bait House.” There are about 25 folks who will be running the Double on Sunday, but what makes Seals run just a wee bit unusual is that he’s running the White Rock Marathon in Dallas the following Sunday. Nice taper.
Owen Washburn will make his road-racing debut (at least in Austin) at the Decker Challenge on Sunday. Washburn has run for UT the past two seasons while attending grad school and was the Longhorns’ fourth or fifth cross-country runner most of the year. A graduate of Brown University, Washburn has been anxious to hit the roads as soon as his collegiate eligibility was used up. A marathon could be in his immediate future (possibly, AT&T), but for right now, “I just want to have fun with a few roads and see how it feels. On Sunday, I’ll run the first 10-K easy and then try to run a harder second half.” Look for him to go toe-to-toe with Bernard Manirakiza and Lance Parker at the front.
Washburn’s more illustrious teammate—Leonel Manzano—has indicated that he will not redshirt the ’08 track season or turn pro early (as some have speculated) to concentrate on his training for the ’08 Olympic Track Trials. Manzano made the World Champs 1500-meter team last summer and even though making the Olympic team quite obviously remains his main goal, he says he will treat the Olympic year as a normal season. “I’m not changing anything,” says Manzano, who is from Marble Falls. “I’ll stay in school and finish that up. I’m sure I’ll focus a little more on the Trials and try to do some different things to get ready for it, but I don’t see any reason to change what I’m doing now.”
Despite the raw, chilly weather on Thanksgiving, the Thundercloud Turkey Trot was a great event and more than 10,000 showed up for the 5-miler. But a lot of those runners and walkers registered as late as race morning and the Run-Far crew was busy entering names while the race was still going on. Nobody’s fault, but it delayed the awards ceremony until 11 a.m. and by that time, most everyone was chilled to the bone and headed home to gorge on turkey and football. (Our turkey was way better than the football.) Anyway, if you earned an age-group award, you need to head over to the Thundercloud corporate offices on West Sixth to pick it up. BTW: If you placed in your age group, you also get a Thundercloud gift card, in addition to the familiar turkey trophy.
Bruno Garcia is a former RunTex’er (who ran at Kansas State) who now works for Nike in New York. He’s running Nikeplus.com challenge and trying to recruit as many high-mileage runners as he can for it. To be involved in the challenge, you need the Nike Plus setup—the Ipod nano and sports kit. If you have that and want to be involved, email Bruno (bruno.garcia@nike.com) with your Nikeplus.com log-in email. What’s in it for you? Bruno will put your name in a special drawing for Nike shoes or a Nike Amp (a new running remote for the Ipod). In addition, whoever logs the most miles gets a special prize.
Hate the NFL Network, but love the Cowboys? I can’t stand either one of ‘em (I don’t much like the Packers either), but want to see the game tonight. If you want to see the NFC showdown as well, the Austin Runners Club is having a midweek beer drinking and football watching get together at North by Northwest (10100 N. Capital of Texas Highway) at 7:15.
Another fun get together (without the football) is set for tomorrow night at RunTex. The occasion is to celebrate the publication of Jen Ohlson’s new book: Every Town Needs a Trail. The party gets underway at 6:30 and there will be food, drinks and many of the runners featured in her fine book will be on hand.
There was a story about our own Desiree Ficker in her hometown newspaper in Maryland which reported that her father—Robin, a huge track fan who took the entire family to Olympics and World Champs—actually built a track in the backyard of their home (using the plans for the Madison Square Garden indoor track) so young Des would have someplace to run. Her father, who travels to many of her triathlons, said of his daughter’s chances at the Olympic Trials Marathon: “I think she’ll do well. She’s extremely competitive. After doing Ironman, I think the marathon almost seems like a warm-up.”