KEEPING PACE The Official Newsletter of The Robins Pacers

The Pacers are working very hard to make the upcoming Relay for Life a success. On Saturday, April 24th, a group of us collected donations at two different intersections in Warner Robins. In four hours, we collected $2,418! The Relay is scheduled for May 14-15 at the Bonaire Elementary School on Highway 96. It will begin at 7:00 pm, with cancer survivors walking the first lap around the track following the opening ceremonies. We have 13 Pacers signed up to participate in the relay. We picked our times at the last meeting. If you are on the team but were not at the last meeting, please call Janice Westmoreland (922-1019) to find out what times are still available. The list will be at our next meeting on May 4th as well. Even if you are not planning to run with us, please come out and join in the fun. We will have a big tent again this year with the Pacer banner and should be easy to find. Just look for us. We?ll be there until noon on the 15th! Happy Birthday to You! May 6th Sue Crenshaw May 19th Gary Kretsinger Memorial Day May 31, 1999

Race Results Perry Dogwood Festival 5K April 3rd Mitch Sinyard 20:41 3rd AG Carl Perazzola 21:36 Marv Champion 24:16 3rd AG Teressa Sowell 25:35 3rd AG Joe Howard 25:38 Don Hall 26:20 Caryl Deems 27:09 Charlene Earles 29:20 1st AG Marion Fraley 29:42 2nd AG Mike Deems 33:00 Linda Whitaker 36:18 1st AG GA Special Olympics (GEICO) 5K April 10th Caryl Deems 27:15 1st AG Harness Festival 5K - Hawkinsville April 16th Mitch Sinyard 19:07 2nd AG Marvin Champion 23:08 Joe Reott 23:14 Caryl Deems 25:47 3rd AG MSO Allegro Run 8K April 17th Mitch Sinyard 33:09 2nd AG Carl Perazola 36:24 3rd AG Caryl Deems 45:32 3rd AG Marion Fraley 47:53 1st AG Linda Whitaker 50:06 1st AG Upcoming Races May 8th - Run Americus 5K (Application attached) June 6th - Tar Baby 10K (Application attached) June 19th - GA Peach Festival 5K - Ft. Valley (Application attached)

The Pacers donated $25 to the Alzheimer's Association in the memory of Alice Hall. The club received the following note from Don and Joyce Hall: "Dear friends, We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and are very grateful for your kind donation in memory of our dear mother to the Alzheimer's Association. She was so at peace in her life and she shared 85 wonderful years with us. May God bless each of you." Sincerely, Don and Joyce Hall

Don't Talk To Me Till I Get My Coffee!

Ever since the Dark Ages, man has searched for ways to improve himself. Unfortunately, he was also looking for a short cut to accomplish what he set out to do. This was good for some things. Otherwise we would still be clubbing our nightly meal instead of stopping at the local market and purchasing our food, which someone else clubbed for us.

Short cuts are a way of life. We want to lose weight but don't want to stop eating to do it. It's more convenient to pop a pill and be guaranteed to lose 10 pounds while we sleep. Well no such luck, Bozo. I've tried every diet pill ever produced, and I figured I gained an average of two pounds per pill.

Short cuts don't stop at losing weight for runners. They look for that miracle in a bottle to get their times down to what Bill Rogers ran in his prime. Well, I say again no such luck Bozo. It just ain't going to happen, at least not in our lifetime.

We runners are strange creatures. We scream when they raise the entry fee up a buck. Yet we'll drop $50 for a little white pill that will increase our endurance or take 5 seconds off each mile in a 5K race. The use of drugs, both legal and illegal, in sports is wide spread these days and there is no doubt that some will aid in an athlete's performance. The down side is that there is a price to pay, and I'm not referring to the all-mighty dollar. Runners use several ergogenic aids without any proof or disproof of their efficiency or danger. We see an ad that some well-known personality ate two "Power Bars" before he broke the world's record in some track event. At the next local 10K every runner is walking around before the race chewing on a Power Bar. Not only was there no world record set but only a handful of participants broke 40 minutes. A far cry from world record time.

There are some common drugs that runners use and don't even realize it. The most prominent drug in running is caffeine. That morning cup not only perks you up and opens your eyes but it slightly increases stomach acidity, and increases the rate at which the energy is supplied from your stomach. It also relaxes muscle tissue, particularly the bronchioles of the lungs, which in turn increases ventilation. Another effect is how it alters the fats stored in the body. As these fats are stored, they have no use to the runner. As soon as we drink that coffee a phenomenon occurs where the dormant fat is converted into active useable free fatty acids. This helps the runner because the fats are now used by the muscles instead of carbohydrates in the form of glycogen and glucose. Glucose is the last energy source used by the body during exercise. Hence, the longer your glucose level lasts, the longer you can run.

An example is the "wall" in marathon running. Most people can store enough glucose in their bodies to last 20 miles. When it runs out, so do you. Again I'll refer to the Bozo statement. Although caffeine would appear to be the answer to a runner's prayer, there are problems with its use. The effects of caffeine take about 90 minutes to kick in and there are numerous side effects from heart erythema to gastrointestinal disturbances (don't run behind a runner who drank coffee). There have also been reports of death from as little a 1000 milligrams. The average cup of coffee has 150 mg.

There is no doubt that the goal for the majority of runners is faster times. Just remember that sometimes that short cut is not so short.

By Frank Schaffer