Dear AARC Members, I hope you all are enjoying the summer of 2010. We’ve had a lot of activity amongst club members, as racing season is in full swing. One thing about summer racing and especially this summer: don’t expect many personal bests. Distance running and heat are not a synergistic combination. However, keep training in the summer and the times will come in the Fall. Be patient. Heat can cause times to be as much as 20-30 seconds slower per mile.   Chris Plominski and the Phils 5K race committee did another outstanding job with our eleventh annual Phils Tavern 5K (pictures now online). Once again we had a record number of runners and walkers, and even managed to have decent running weather. We had two beneficiaries: The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association and The Inter-faith Housing Alliance in Ambler.  Without members of our club volunteering for our races, our races would not exist. Last year we were able to donate $20,000 to local charities and $2000 for 4 high school scholarships! And, we are able to use proceeds from the races to help offset race entry fees of AARC teams.   We'll soon be publicizing the details of our volunteer "race reimbursement" policies.  This will help us continue providing our two annual premier running events: our Frostbite 5-Miler and Phils 5K.   On a related topic, we depend on club members to nominate beneficiaries. If you have a non-profit organization that you would like to nominate and one that meets our requirements, please email me and/or send a written request to AARC PO Box 204 Springhouse, Pa. 19477.   We also have club members who direct their own races. Ross will be hosting an inaugural 5K race in memory of his mother in late August. His race as well as almost every other local (and some not so local races) are listed on the race calendar on the AARC web site. And as they say on the infomercials...  "That's not all!"   Here are just a few upcoming activities of AARC and our members:  Other club members are active in helping to train other runners. Dana and Jack are coaching a group for the Las Vegas Marathon benefiting the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Ken and Jim are coaching a group for the Philadelphia Marathon that benefits the Tourette Syndrome Association. As a reminder, we have 4 Fun Runs every week and a track workout on Thursday night. Our forum has a lot of interesting and useful information. If you have not visited or signed up to use the site, I recommend that you do.   We have several members signed up to run on an AARC team in The ING half marathon (aka PDR, the “Philadelphia Distance Run”).  And there are several relay teams forming in the near future. Several members ran in the 20 in 24. Another good reason to visit the forum. Upcoming social events include a Fall picnic, our general meeting in October and of course our annual Winter Party.  And although it may be hard to think about this in the heat of July, I will be starting to organize and plan for our Frostbite Five Miler in the next month.  There’s talk of an exciting new event that we may connect with our Five Miler that should be of special interest to local running enthusiasts and beginning runners alike. We always need volunteers for these and other events to occur.  If you are able to volunteer to work with other members on any of these AARC activities and events -- including communications & publicity, social events, Fun Runs, sponsorships, running and racing activities, or membership, please let me know.   Keep training and enjoy the extended daylight hours!   Yours in running,   Ira  (president@aarclub.com )