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Thank You, Pagosa |
Morgan & Nancy Murri | 10/1/08
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Dear Fellow Pagosans:
Thanks to your tremendous support and participation, our first annual Mountain Chile Cha Cha trail race was a sizzling success! 105 runners toed the line Saturday to begin what would quickly be recognized as a challenging and beautiful course. Hard to imagine just steps from downtown.
Runners ranged in ages from 19 month old Owen Hull to 72-year-old, 15-mile finisher, Ross Westley. Of the 105 participants 57 were Pagosans and 48 came to visit from Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona and Florida.
Fifty-eight-year-old Beth “Hurricane” Carter from Crested Butte reported: “In all my career wins and top finishes the warm welcome I received as the last runner to cross the line in the 15 mile distance combined with the awesome course, made this my most rewarding race finish ever!”
Seventy-two-year-old veteran racer Ross Westley from Arvada said “I’ve been waiting years for a running event to happen in this area so I could have a reason to visit.” “The quality of this event and the beauty of this town fires me up to go home and get this event as part of the Colorado Running Magazine points series next year…” (A move that would immediately triple to quadruple attendance.)
The participation of volunteers was just as inspiring. From our crew that has been involved for months, practicing timing sessions, setting up aide stations and raising sponsorship money to guys like Ben who showed up injured and couldn’t run but wanted to pitch in and helped direct traffic and cheer on his fellow locals.
Perhaps best of all we raised money critical to the success of our locally based charity GECKO and provided a $500 fund for the Pagosa High School PAC (Pagosa Achievement Program) kids.
Congratulations to local 15-mile champions Annie Sewell and JD Kurz — each of whom took home a $300 check from GECKO. Fitting, as we are kid-focused and Annie and husband Patrick are new parents — and JD and his wife Hope will be, in a few weeks!
We are very proud to be Pagosans and of the support we continue to receive from this community.
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