WOW, WOW, WOW!

Thank you to all who participated with the race on Saturday! We had a record number of runners, exceeding 1,700 registrants!!

Here are a few highlights from the race and some photos. There is also information below that might help you resolve any of the problems you might have encountered, regarding registration, shirts or awards...

HIGHLIGHTS

At 8:15 on a windy but dry Saturday morning, Hana-Li Winter sang a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, prior to Lt. Dimmer of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department blowing the starting horn. Then approximately 1,700 runners young and old started off on the chip-timed, USATF Certified 5K & 10K courses, which were now out-and-back, over the Memorial Causeway.

After the race, all runners and families enjoyed a cooked-from-scratch pancake breakfast with fresh ground spelt flour and all of the fixin's, put on by our wonderful volunteers, lead by Kitty Magness. Many runners also enjoyed EAS Myoplex shakes, Starbucks coffee, juice and more.

At the post-race breakfast, runners were able to browse the various vendor booths, and were also sworn-in as Drug Free Marshals by the Youth for a Drug Free Florida. "THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS" DVD was also being played at the expo and hundreds of this terrific anti-drug DVD were given out as well as thousands of anti-drug pamphlets.

The SunState Massage Academy was on-hand to give runners complimentary post-race rubdowns and Dr. Jarrett of Family Life Chiropractic was on-hand to help runners as well.

PROBLEM RESOLUTION

For those of you who might have experienced a problem at registration, with regard to the shirts and such, or with your awards, we'd like to offer our apologies, and would like to see how we can get them resolved asap. With an increase of almost double the number of registrants, it's safe to say that the lines got rather clogged.

We had a "problem resolution" table set-up to help runners after the race get issues corrected, but if you didn't make it over there, and if for some reason you did not get a shirt, or have an unresolved issue, please do let me know, so that we can take care of it.

If there is anything else you need to have resolved, email me so it can get worked out.

Please understand that we are always working on improving the Say No To Drugs race. Even though this was our 21st year, we're always expanding and trying to make improvements, and as a result, we still experience growing pains here and there. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding.

AWARDS

For those of you who won in your age group, but did not stay to pick up your plaque, they may be picked up from Bayshore Trophies & Awards 727.669.7873 from January 1st - 30th. Their website is www.bayshoretrophies.com and they're located in the Countryside area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THANK YOU PINELLAS COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT

We'd like to thank Lt. Dimmer of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department for blowing the starting horn at the start of the race, as well as all of the members of the Clearwater Police Department, who came out to help keep our runners safe along the route!

THANK YOU FLORIDA ROAD RACE MANAGEMENT

Thank you to our race management & timing crew: Ric Dorrie, Everett McDowell, Greg McFerren and the rest of the crew... It was quite a challenge with such an increase in runners, so we thank you for going above and beyond with all of the equipment you brought! Thank you for providing the high-quality Ipico Sport Chip!

THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS!

There is no question we would not have been able to pull off such a race without our 150+ volunteers including:

• Pancake Breakfast Crew
• Race Marshals
• Split Timers
• Registration Staff
• Water Station Crew
• Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts
• Executives And so many other areas that are behind the scenes!

So, to all... THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

On behalf of all of our many volunteers, we would like to wish you a very Happy Holidays and a prosperous 2010! With Love,

Chris Alexander & Sue Minkoff
Race Co-Directors