News! Updates! The information you’re looking for! Please check back soon for the newly revised West Penn Track club website and information center!

The results from the 2007 Pittsylvania XC Challenge are now posted.

Your friendly neighborhood webmaster has received some emails wondering where the XC Challenge results are. Well, I now have them in my possession, and once I get them properly formatted, they’ll be up for public viewing. Stay tuned.

We are int he midst of building a photo gallery for this site. There’s now a “Photos” link in the menu bar, which will take you to the 2007 pictures that we’ve uploaded so far. We’ll soon be tweaking the old web site’s photos for inclusion. Enjoy!

In his last race as a member of West Penn Track Club, Steve Garand ran the race of his life and was the top masters finisher at the Great Race with a time of 34:00. Steve still has fond feelings for WPTC, but the Pharaoh Hounds’ training regimen suit him better. Good luck, Steve, and keep up the good work! The Hounds are getting a heck of a runner.

Finishing just 18 seconds behind Steve was another West Penner, Larry Van Dyke, who recently won the Run Around the Square. Congratulations on your PR, Larry!

The Post-Gazette recently profiled West Penner Tom Abbott.

Great Race tradition goes on for Indiana Township man

Tom Abbott makes it look easy as he runs along Rich Hill Road near his Indiana Township home, his long strides appearing effortless as he glides along the pavement. At 52, he’s lithe and healthy and could pass for a much younger man. He’s also one of only 26 runners who have competed in every Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race since it began in 1977.

Congratulations go to WPTC member Marti Stephan who took first in the women’s 65-69 group at the Parkersburg Half Marathon with a time of 1:57:06. Keep up the good work!

The 30th Anniversary Great Race is nearly upon us! If you’d like to run for a West Penn team, contact your team captain or John Harwick (competitions committee chair).

Don’t forget to wear your WPTC singlet! If you need to order one, download and mail in the order form or use the form provided in recent newsletters.

Also, be on the lookup for an informal gathering of West Penners near the finish line. Details coming soon…

Are you a student at Pitt, CMU, or another one of Pittsburgh’s 13 institutions for higher learning? Are you looking for a friendly and relaxed group of people to run with? If so, come join a group I like to call “Hump Day at the Track”.

Every Wednesday at 6PM we meet at CMU’s track to train together. There’s a wide variety of ages and levels of participation there. Some folks walk together. Some run repeats together. Others do their own thing at their own pace. It’s a friendly and inclusive group and new faces are always welcome. Contact Ken Krynski for more info.

If you don’t live close enough to CMU to train with us, or you’re just looking for a different kind of group, be sure to check out our list of training groups.

P.S. If there are any active training groups missing from our list, be sure to let the webmaster know. Thanks.

Congratulations go to WPTC member Larry Van Dyke who won the 2007 Run Around the Square 5K with a time of 17:42. Keep up the good work!