[CTSARA] Hams Needed For Norwalk Summer Series Running Races

[Jon Perelstein]

SARA and GNARC have been asked to provide ham radio communications support
for The Norwalk Summer Series -- a series of distance running races held in
various locations in Norwalk during the summer.

The race director is a personal friend of mine, and I am the official scorer
for these races.  The series consists of 6 races held between mid-June and
mid-September.

For each race, we'll need a net control, one or two (preferably two) support
vehicles, and one or two rest stops (depending on the race).  Since this is
running, there are no issues with bike repair or carrying equipment.  The
support vehicle(s) will simply patrol the course looking for runners who
need assistance.  This is a perfect opportunity for our hams to ride the
routes on bicycles, motorcycles, mopeds, or other non-traditional
"vehicles".  I'm seriously thinking of turning over the scoring to someone
else and riding the routes on my bicycle.  Most of the rest stops have good
cell phone coverage, so our focus for rest stops will be providing hams at
those few rest stops that don't have good cell phone coverage.

For this year, we've been asked to provide support for the following races:

a.  The 9 mile race which is run from Calf Pasture Beach on Sat Aug 6.  It's
two loops of about 4.5 miles each, may require a ham at one rest stop and
then the one or two in support vehicles.

b.  The 11 mile race which is run from the Silvermine School on Perry Ave up
in the Silvermine section.  It takes place on Sat Aug 27 and consists of two
loops of about 5.5 miles each.  We would need to cover two support vehicles
and one rest stop (possibly a second, we have to go check).

c.  The Norwalk Half Marathon that is run from Fox Run School on Fillow
Street in West Norwalk.  It's two loops of about 6.5 miles each, and takes
place Sept 10 this year.  We would need to cover two two support vehicles
and two rest stops.

There's also a 7 miler from McMahon School on July 23rd that would need a
support vehicle or two if people are interested in doing that one also.

The races all start at 8am.  The very last runner will finish before 10:30am
for all but the Half Marathon, and will finish by 11am for the Half.  If you
check the records of the races (http://www.lightfootrunners.com/) you will
find that *I* won the coveted last place trophy on these races for a number
of years in a row, so I know what I'm talking about when I estimate their
ending times.

The Norwalk Summer Series is a charity event.  The Half Marathon is a
qualifying race for both the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon.
 The 9 mile race is dedicated to a very good drug abuse prevention program
called "Courage To Speak" that targets drug use among school-age children.
 The 9 miler usually attracts our US Representative to Congress as well as
various State legislators.  There is often someone from the Governor's
office and it's not unknown for one of our U.S. Senators to show up.  The
Half Marathon also attracts a fair number of dignitaries.

Since these are much lower key than the bike rides, they are perfect for
people who have little or no experience doing public service events.  Toy
and I are thinking that we would rotate the net control position among
people who have not previously served as net control for training purposes.
 In addition, we want to see what we can do to use these as events to
practice with APRS -- not because they need them, but because they don't
need them and thus offer a low-key opportunity for us to get experience with
the technologies.

Oh, did I mention the free ice cream??

It is not necessary for you to sign up for all the races.  Just one will be
fine -- although of course I would like to encourage people to sign up for
all of them.

If you're interested in participating, please contact me or Toy.

73s
Jon
WB2RYV