The Great Sandbagger 10 k

7 am, August 7, 2004. Cool temperature, hilly course.

Nine people showed up to contest for the title of "Great Sandbagger". The first person to cross the finish line wins the title and gets to put his/her name on the 3’ tall traveling trophy. Since 1973, some of the finest liars have etched their names on the trophy, people like Joe Schroeder (first winner of the Heart of America Marathon), Don Johnson, Rob Spier, and (sadly) me, your club president. They are liars because they won by grossly overestimating how long it will take to run the 10K. Since we stagger the start times from the slowest predicted time to the fastest, usually the person with the largest positive difference between the predicted time and the actual time (lying) wins the race. Theoretically, if everyone told the absolute truth about how fast they planned to run the race, everyone would cross the finish line together, but that never happens and this edition of the race was no exception. Kevin Crane won, having predicted 49:40 while actually running 45:16. Two of the most honest racers, Joe Duncan and Jim Linville actually ran considerably slower than they predicted, a strategy that got them 8th and 9th places respectively. So much for honesty as the best policy. A special thanks to Terzah Ewing’s fiancé, Dan, and to Don Granberg, too, for helping with the timing and scoring. Thanks to Anne Hessler, for baking the delicious cinnamon rolls enjoyed by runners and helpers alike.

-Dick Hessler, race director

   
1. Kevin Crane  49:40 predicted  45:16 actual

2.Mike Flanagan  52:00  48:03

3. Dennis Knudson  56:00  52:16

4. Terzah Ewing  55:00  51:42 (First and only female finisher)

5. Hugh Emerson  50:00  47:36

6. Allan Benjamin  43:00  42:32

7. Andy Emerson  41:30  41:33 (Scratch runner, best prediction, and fastest finisher)

8. Joe Duncan  56:00  58:32

9. Jim Linville  65:00  74:46  (First 10K race of his career)