Rock n’ Roll Half-Marathon & Current Run Schedule

Hi runners!

Apologies for not checking into this blog for a while, but team RunVassar has been super busy so far this semester as we’ve been training for the Rock n’ Roll Half-Marathon that was on October 10th. It was an early morning (as evidenced by this photo taken at 5:30 AM) but we all finished the 13.1 miles strong!

As of right now, our running schedule is as follows (as usual, we meet in front of Main Building):

• Monday @ 8:50AM, 5:00PM
• Tuesday @ 7:00AM, 5:00PM
• Wednesday @ 8:50AM, 5:00PM
• Thursday @ 7:00AM, 4:00PM
• Friday @ 8:50AM, 4:00PM (track workout)
• Saturday @ 10:00AM
• Sunday @ 4:00PM (beginner’s day)

Labor Day weekend runs, activities fair, & swimming!

Hi runners! We have some fun stuff happening this weekend! Please note that there are some changes from our last email. As usual, we meet in front of Main Building before the beginning of each run.

Saturday: Run at 9AM — probably not a long one like we had originally planned, because we have to be back in time for the activities fair! Come stop by the library lawn and visit our table on anytime from 11AM-2PM to chat. Even if you haven’t run in months but want to get back into it, or are a first time beginner, we would love to have you!

Sunday: Beginners’ Day 2 mile run to the swimming hole at 4PM to cool off from these stifling 90 degree days, and Natalie will drive people back because she has her car on campus now! Yay! Bring your swimsuit/towel/and sunscreen.

Monday: 10AM, tentative long run to celebrate Labor Day the best way we know how 🙂

Hope to see you out there!
– RunVassar Exec Board

Belated Earth Day Clean-Up Run!

We had a great time cleaning up Zack’s Way this morning, but there’s still more left to pick up so come join us next time to keep the community that we run in beautiful and healthy! 🙂

(Note: RunVassar is not affiliated with Jose Seco but we do admonish him for leaving his sign on the side of the road for 6 months! For shame.)

Earth Day!

Perhaps, you, like us, forgot about Earth Day last week. Feel free to join us in repenting this Saturday morning as we run along Zack’s Way and pick up as much litter and trash as we can!

The rest of our upcoming runs will be the same as usual. Meet us in front of Main!

• Friday          4:30pm
• Saturday      10:00am Earth Day
• Sunday        3pm Beginner’s Day
• Monday       4:30pm
• Tuesday      8:50am
• Thursday     8:50am

And don’t forget to come to the upcoming Founder’s Day 5k! Next weekend! There will be water bottles and T-shirts as prizes.

Families Weekend 5k and New Run Schedule!

Thanks to all of you who came out for the Families Weekend 5k! It was such a nice way to start such a nice day.

Race photos are now posted here: http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=bf6ecda443c04610&sid=0BctmLdyyYsmvu  A big thanks to Bob Kopac from the Mid Hudson Road Runners Club for taking these pictures for us.

Our next 5k is the Founders Day 5k, which will be in 3 weeks!

Next, the runs for this week. As usual, meet us in front of Main.

This Sunday at 3:00PM is Beginner’s Day! We will have groups at 8 min/mile, 10 min/mile, 12 min/mile, etc. as necessary. Please let us know what pace and distance you prefer. 🙂

* New running times for M/W/F * starting this week

• Monday at 4:30pm
• Tuesday at 8:50am
• Wednesday at 4:30pm
• Thursday at 8:50am
• Friday at 4:30pm
• Saturday at 10:00am
• Sunday at 3:00pm

New Leadership, Relay For Life, Beginner Day, Families Weekend 5k!

As you can tell by the title, we have at least a couple of announcements!

First, RunVassar leadership for the 2015-2016 academic year has been selected.

• Co-presidents: Ronald Yu ’16 and Charlie Bando-Hess ’16
• Vice president(s): Robin Piatt-Stegman ’17 (fall), Natalie DiCenzo ’16 (spring)
• Treasurer: Lisa Je ’18
• PR Officer: Maryam Norton ’18

Second, this past Saturday, April 11th, was Relay For Life. Thank you to everyone who came out to walk or run loops with the RunVassar team, The Record Wreckers, to support a great cause!

Third, we’re hoping that now that it’s gotten warmer out we can convince some more people to come out and start running with us on a regular basis! We’ve instituted Beginners Day Sundays, where we especially encourage new runners to try out a couple of low-stress, easy miles at whatever pace or distance they’re comfortable with.

Reminder that the current running schedule is as such:

• Monday at 3:00 PM
• Tuesday at 8:50AM
• Wednesday at 3:00 PM
• Thursday at 8:50 AM
• Friday at 3:00 PM
• Saturday at 10:00 AM
• Sunday at 3:00 PM (Beginner Day)

We’ve been thinking of pushing back the M/W/F afternoon run times maybe to 4:30 or 5:00 PM to accommodate people with afternoon classes since we have much longer daylight now, so if anyone has an opinion either way on this, please let us know!

This Saturday (4/18) is the Families Weekend 5k Fun Run, so there will be no group run that morning. Instead, race registration starts at 10:00 AM on the quad, and the race starts at 11:00 AM. Parents/siblings/friends/you are all welcome to race. There will be prizes and medals for top finishers in several categories and food at the end.  We will be tabling 10:00 AM–3:00 PM in the Retreat on Monday and Wednesday and in the College Center on Friday if you would like to sign up early.  If you would like to help table for this or volunteer on the day of the race, please send us an email.

-Exec Board

Semester Recap + Future Plans

Welcome back from spring break, runners!

In February, RunVassar sold cookies and Valentines at Cupid’s Flea Market to raise money for the American Cancer Society. It was adorable.

Now onto more things! We’re now accepting applications for exec board positions for next year. If you have any questions on what each position entails, please send an email to the current officer. The positions are:

• Up to 2 co-presidents: currently Ronald Yu & Charlie Bando-Hess
• 1 Vice President: currently Natalie DiCenzo
• 1 Treasurer: currently Lony Leung
• Up to 2 Public Relations Officers: currently Robin Piatt-Stegman & Ian Snyder

All active members are encouraged to apply for a position on the board! The vote will take place on Saturday (4/4/15) at 7PM in the Retreat during the monthly RunVassar meeting. In addition, if you’re interested in leading runs, please let an officer know and we will be happy to give you a short training and suggestions for running routes.

The weekly group run schedule will now be:

• Mondays at 3PM
• Tuesdays at 8:50AM
• Wednesdays at 3PM
• Thursdays at 8:50AM
• Fridays at 3PM
• Saturdays at 10AM
• Sundays at 3PM – BEGINNER’S DAY!

Many people have expressed interest in joining us for slower runs, so we’ve decided to do just that every Sunday afternoon. Our first beginners day will be Sunday April 5th. These runs will be about 2 miles and at a comfortable pace for our new runners. We’ll break up into groups paced between 8 min/mile to 15 min/mile as necessary. Hope to see you there!

Two more things! Vassar’s Relay for Life event is happening on April 11th. Our team, the Record Wreckers, will be participating once again. Please consider signing up and joining us to support cancer research! http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1777403&pg=team&fr_id=67161&s_locale=en_US&et=w4j8A7QxfzK4noyx2I4png&s_tafId=1548535

Finally, planning for the first 5k of the spring is in the works. Look for updates on the All Families Weekend 5k, which will be on Saturday April 18th.

Turkey Trot 5K Recap + Plans for This Semester!

Yes, Thanksgiving and all of the holidays that are involved with December and the entirety of winter break have elapsed, and it’s now 2015. But, let’s not forget how ~awesome~ the Turkey Trot 5K was back in November! We sold some festive cookies and pies and looked really stylish doing it, as evidenced above by the lovely Robin modeling our wares, and raised some money to donate to the local food bank. Thanks to the help of our volunteers and the participation of so many runners from Vassar and the Poughkeepsie community, we had a great race with a wonderful turn out.

So let’s keep that running-related excitement going into 2015! Our first two runs of the new year and new semester will be this weekend, Saturday January 31st and Sunday February 1st, at 3:00PM. As usual, we meet in front of Main Building. Our first draft of the new running schedule for the entire week will be figured shortly, so stay tuned.

Other things to look forward to this semester: fundraising with a Friday the 13th/Valentine’s Day themed bake sale, possible laser tag collaboration, Families’ Weekend 5K, and Founder’s Day 5K!

Until then, bundle up in your Underarmor, thick socks, hats, and gloves and come brave the cold to run with us! Hope to see you out there.

-RunVassar Exec Board

Turkey Trot 5k

Our first fun run of the year is finally upon us! 

Race day registration will start on the quad between Davison and Raymond at around 10:15am. Numbers and pins will be provided at the registration table. Money donations to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley will also be accepted there.

We will give a walkthrough of the course at the registration tables at 10:50 before walking over to the start (Main Gate) at 11:00am. The course will be marked with signs and chalk arrows and guided by several volunteers from the Office of Health Education as well as by Vassar Security.

The temperature is looking to be in the mid 30’s with 0% chance of rain. Although the weather may not be perfect for running fast times, we will have prizes for top finishers!

Lastly, this is a community oriented event, so please give us a hand in welcoming our guests to Vassar.

See you tomorrow!
-RunVassar Exec Board

A Very Belated Princeton Recap

 

Even though the Princeton Invitational was almost a month ago, it’s never too late to blog about it and reminisce! After a hearty breakfast at the Deece, we set off only an hour later than anticipated to drive to New Jersey. Luckily we only made a few wrong turns the entire time (though one of those wrong turns was repeated twice in a row… whoops), and before we knew it we had made it to Princeton and were ready to race. And race we did! Even though we didn’t have enough runners to technically be a team that could score points or anything, we were all still winners in our hearts and did Vassar proud.

After the race we explored a bit of the Princeton campus. Admittedly it was pretty impressive, but in the end… come on, Vassar is still better. Obviously. By then we were pretty eager to get some food in our bellies, and the restaurant that we went to did not disappoint. All you can eat sushi buffet, twenty bucks. You checked off what you wanted on a little paper menu and they just started bringing it out to you one thing after another which was both scary and awesome. It was what one can only describe as a smorgasbord, and my personal consumption included but was not limited to seaweed salad, mustard salad, miso soup, vegetable dumplings, tempurah tofu, an avocado and peanut roll, a sweet potato roll, and fried bananas. I legitimately did not know my stomach was capable of holding that much. It was a great meal of delicious food and great company. After rolling ourselves out of there, we made the drive back to campus in one tired but happy piece.

-Natalie