By Fred Deckert

 

This year’s Couples Caper furnished the most exciting finish ever. The three leading women battled from the start to the finish of the 4K event. Kate Remillard was the victor by a scant second over Meredith Urban, who flew over the line a single tick ahead of Kara Newell. The ladies finished in 15:27, 15:28 and 15:29, giving Bill Lott’s trigger finger on the Chronomix its own challenge.

Kate’s hard-earned victory proved not up to the challenge, however. Jim Van Veen did not take long to make up the one second differential and raced home in 13:30 to take the tag team event in a combined 28:58. Art Remillard did hang on to 2nd place to take the top married couple spot, and Jeff Nielsen with Fran McLean held off Mr. Back of the Pack??? Jack McDermott’s charge by a scant 15 seconds. Jack paired with Erin Shepherd and ran the second fastest 4K leg. Evidently McDermott’s feet recovered well from his week old Tallahassee Marathon victory.

However, in spite of an absolutely gorgeous day, the Caper drew only 26 couples, down from previous years. Since about half the competitors were friends of the R.D.’s and the other half non-repeaters, we regretfully must face the conclusion that this is just a race that has never caught fire. As such, Margarete and I have decided this was the last one for us. We would be happy to assist anyone who wishes to take it over and hopefully could make it more of a success. We are very thankful for those who have supported us over the years and of course thanks to our volunteers; Bill Lott, Lisa and Lilly Unger, Sue Kelly, Lucy Thomas, Linda Johnson, Jimmy Kalfus, Bill Hillison, Ken Vinson, Joe Dexter and of course to Jim Phillips and the TCC campus authorities who allowed us access to the facility. And Thanks to our sponsor, Gail Reinertsen of the “Calhoun Street Inn Bed and Breakfast” for her generous sponsorship and encouragement over the life of the event.

* Footnote from Jimmy Kenney:

 

While at the Couples Caper my son was born. My wife was having irregular contractions. We thought she might be ready to give birth to Xander Owen Kenney in 24 to 72 hours. I brought the cell phone with me, and thought worst case scenario I would miss her during the hour my mom and I ran, and if I missed her I would get the message and run home and take her to the hospital. How fast can you go into labor? Well I put the phone in the car around 3:45 P.M., 15 minutes before the race, and my mom and I went to do the run. Well mom left and I realized I should have kept the keys, because I could not get into the car to get the phone.

No problem, mom can get the phone when she gets back. She tagged my hand and I asked her to get the phone. As you have probably noticed this story is going down hill, and she did not hear me ask her to get the phone. I finished the run and asked my mom for the phone. She did not have it and I quickly got the keys. I would walk off the race on my way to the car to get the phone.

I open the car door and grabbed the phone from under the seat and guess what? Seven missed calls! I quickly called my house and the neighbor answered. The neighbor is never at the house. I quickly asked what was up? “Congratulations you are a daddy again”, she said. She explained that the baby was born in the bathroom of our house. The paramedics were just leaving the house. So during the one hour I put my cell phone down, my son decided to quickly come into the world.

My wife’s mom delivered Xander Owen Kenney at 4:18 P.M. on 2/22/2004 in the bathroom of our house.

My mom and I ran the race in under 39 minutes, and got to TMH from TCC in 10 minutes. We wore our seat belts, and we beat the ambulance.

Requiem for the Couples Caper*

By Fred Deckert

This year’s Couples Caper furnished the most exciting finish ever. The three leading women battled from the start to the finish of the 4K event. Kate Remillard was the victor by a scant second over Meredith Urban, who flew over the line a single tick ahead of Kara Newell. The ladies finished in 15:27, 15:28 and 15:29, giving Bill Lott’s trigger finger on the Chronomix its own challenge.

Kate’s hard-earned victory proved not up to the challenge, however. Jim Van Veen did not take long to make up the one second differential and raced home in 13:30 to take the tag team event in a combined 28:58. Art Remillard did hang on to 2nd place to take the top married couple spot, and Jeff Nielsen with Fran McLean held off Mr. Back of the Pack??? Jack McDermott’s charge by a scant 15 seconds. Jack paired with Erin Shepherd and ran the second fastest 4K leg. Evidently McDermott’s feet recovered well from his week old Tallahassee Marathon victory.

However, in spite of an absolutely gorgeous day, the Caper drew only 26 couples, down from previous years. Since about half the competitors were friends of the R.D.’s and the other half non-repeaters, we regretfully must face the conclusion that this is just a race that has never caught fire. As such, Margarete and I have decided this was the last one for us. We would be happy to assist anyone who wishes to take it over and hopefully could make it more of a success. We are very thankful for those who have supported us over the years and of course thanks to our volunteers; Bill Lott, Lisa and Lilly Unger, Sue Kelly, Lucy Thomas, Linda Johnson, Jimmy Kalfus, Bill Hillison, Ken Vinson, Joe Dexter and of course to Jim Phillips and the TCC campus authorities who allowed us access to the facility. And Thanks to our sponsor, Gail Reinertsen of the “Calhoun Street Inn Bed and Breakfast” for her generous sponsorship and encouragement over the life of the event.

* Footnote from Jimmy Kenney:  

While at the Couples Caper my son was born. My wife was having irregular contractions. We thought she might be ready to give birth to Xander Owen Kenney in 24 to 72 hours. I brought the cell phone with me, and thought worst case scenario I would miss her during the hour my mom and I ran, and if I missed her I would get the message and run home and take her to the hospital. How fast can you go into labor? Well I put the phone in the car around 3:45 P.M., 15 minutes before the race, and my mom and I went to do the run. Well mom left and I realized I should have kept the keys, because I could not get into the car to get the phone.

No problem, mom can get the phone when she gets back. She tagged my hand and I asked her to get the phone. As you have probably noticed this story is going down hill, and she did not hear me ask her to get the phone. I finished the run and asked my mom for the phone. She did not have it and I quickly got the keys. I would walk off the race on my way to the car to get the phone.

I open the car door and grabbed the phone from under the seat and guess what? Seven missed calls! I quickly called my house and the neighbor answered. The neighbor is never at the house. I quickly asked what was up? “Congratulations you are a daddy again”, she said. She explained that the baby was born in the bathroom of our house. The paramedics were just leaving the house. So during the one hour I put my cell phone down, my son decided to quickly come into the world.

My wife’s mom delivered Xander Owen Kenney at 4:18 P.M. on 2/22/2004 in the bathroom of our house.

My mom and I ran the race in under 39 minutes, and got to TMH from TCC in 10 minutes. We wore our seat belts, and we beat the ambulance.

Complete results.