State of the GRC 2012

As we embark on 2012, the GRC Racing Team -- and our official name is "racing" team -- is at its strongest yet. If you are fuzzy about the details, I refer you to last year's annual report.

Our agenda for the year is twofold -- to succeed as a team on the track, roads and fields, and to create an infrastructure to support our growing membership.

First off, obviously we all have our own races we want to run -- be they Cherry Blossom, the By George 10k, what have you, but every one of us should have Dec. 8 marked on their calendar and a day off planned for the 7th. That's when we take the whole team to Lexington, Kentucky for the National Club Cross Country Championships. That is where we will focus our efforts as a team, and in doing so, each of us will enjoy the full benefits of what this team has to offer. Everything we do this year will build toward that race, showing other runners who work full-time jobs what we are capable of doing.

A lot of you ran cross country as a teen, a preteen, or perhaps even as a tween. You no doubt remember the camaraderie, the team pride, the identity that comes not just from how you yourself ran, but how your team placed. We have the opportunity to avail ourselves of the training partners, the facilities and the expertise to take us wherever in those results we want to go.

We have a lawyer with a stopwatch fetish who is willing to come out on weekend mornings to make sure we can focus on the running. We have tracks, trails, road loops, fields and the aggregate knowledge and experience to culminate in an excellent showing in December.

We have the tools, we have the talent.

When the mud dries in Kentucky, a lot of people are going to know about the GRC. Make sure you're doing enough in your local running community to make sure people around here know about it, too. Building goodwill toward the team can only help.

We're already off to a great start, with solid races in Maryland, South Carolina and Texas in the first few weeks of January, we're on the trajectory to achieve great things. Our ranks continue to grow in all ages. We've got a kid straight out of college who ran a 13 second PR in his first GRC race, but we also have three kids on the way, thanks to Matias, Bain and Wertz's virility.

With this growth, however, comes the challenge of how to manage it. As such, the GRC board has decided to incorporate, primarily to seek non-profit eligibility and to limit our liability for our primary fundraiser, the Father's Day 8k. In the weeks that follow, we will formally file for incorporation and hold elections for the offices of president, vice president/secretary and treasurer. The president will then appoint two additional board members.

In the event that our application for non-profit status is not accepted, however, the team will have to pay taxes on the proceeds from the race. We have yet to determine how to handle such an outcome, but it will no doubt be little trouble for such a dedicated, resourceful and tenacious group. That said, with a successful application to the IRS, that step will not be necessary. Similar organizations have been successful in their efforts, so the board members are confident we will achieve our goal.

As always, a time and effort investment from each of you will be necessary to make the Father's Day 8k a success. As we reach the participant limit that our National Parks Service Permit allows, we will have to turn to other means to optimize the race's proceeds- sponsors. Sam Luff is taking charge of coordinating sponsorships, so each of you, while search for patrons, should ensure the sponsor you have in mind will not conflict with another already in place. More detailed information about how we can build on prior years' successes with the race will follow.


My sleeves are rolled up because I'm ready to get my hands dirty. Let's go to work.