> The Annual Banquet is tomorrow night – that’s Saturday, 4 February, and the bar opens at 6:00pm … Chatham Bars Inn in the Monomoy Room out back. If you haven’t registered or applied or sent in your application or otherwise let us know that you’d like to attend, ping Ecky as soon as possible at runecky@yahoo.com.

> The Day After run will be hosted by Kevin Petrovek at Hanlon’s Shoes in Hyannis as his winter 10 miler on Sunday. If you don’t feel up to the full 10, there are many shorter alternatives so ask at the store for one of the short courses. Go time is 11AM and the store should be unlocked by 10:40. Don’t come at 10:00 or 9:00 unless you’re logging some extra miles before the race.

> !!! We need volunteers for the Hyannis Marathon races on the 26^th of February !!! Please contact Bob Eckerson, Joe Weinberger, or CCAC if you can assist. Primary duty is course marshal –

> We’ve established a new communications channel in the internet-o-sphere – in addition to syndicating our website updates to our Facebook page, we’re pushing updates, thoughts, quotes, and other important news to Twitter as @ccac76. Follow us!

> Andy Scherding has spun up a new Facebook group focused on multisport info: Cape Cod Triathlon: News & Discussion. It’s an open group at the moment and you can join at http://www.facebook.com/groups/231751820246786/.

> Check your Grand Prix results as soon as possible. We’re sincerely hoping that we’ve messed up some of the Happy Trails team members’ times (too fast) and that we recorded some of the Gecko times too slowly. Grand Prix awards will be handed out at the banquet so make sure you get your booty!

Run fast!

Bright sun, a moderate wind from the west and temperatures ranging from the mid-30’s to mid-40’s made for a superb day to run the Cape Cod Ultrarunning Society’s 50K/25K at Sandy Neck. Perhaps it was too warm as much of the beach hasn’t seen a good freeze yet making for some tricky footing. Gregg Stone set the tempo with a 4:33 for the 50K with Colleen Murphy the women’s winner of the quahog shell in 5:24, good for 9th overall. In the 25K, Jamie Zschau dispatched all challengers in 2:07 ahead of a perennially goggled John Martin who posted 3rd in 2:17. Molly Alesch led the women over the upper and lower loops one time for a win in 2:19 which placed her 4th overall. Club power walker Bill Dalrymple tackled the beach and walked to a 4:24 in the 25K, followed by a short outing on Sunday at the Chapin’s Grand Prix finale. The crazy entirety was recorded for historical and training purposes by Alan Budney. [Full Results] [Photos]

Yeah, we’re a social club with a running problem – so get tech social and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll be posting and tweeting local running and triathlon information along with USAT&F, USAT, and other national and world running and multisport news of interest. Be Facebook liker number 500 or Twitter follower number 50 and you’ll get some cool club gear too! Send screen shots of the Facebook or Twitter page, before and after you like or follow us, to ccac@capecodathleticclub.org to claim your goodies!

It all comes down to a lonely run out to a cold and desolate Chapin’s Beach in Dennis – and then we eat, and drink, and be merry! The last race in this year’s Winter Grand Prix series is your last chance for age group and team points and the last stop before the Annual Banquet next weekend. Make sure your times and points are accurate by checking the Scoreboard … and send any corrections to ccac@capecodathleticclub.org. See you at the beach!

Save February 4th for a night of awards, dancing, dinner and drinks as we celebrate another year of fantastic athletic achievements and look forward to another year full of PRs! The fun begins at 6:00PM in the Monomoy Room of Chatham Bars Inn. Dinner starts at 7:00PM followed by his honorable president Bob Eckerson presiding over the awards. Fill out the accompanying registration and return it to Ecky (or the club mailbox) by the 28th of January so we can get our count accurate for CBI’s kitchen staff. For more information, contact Eck at runecky@yahoo.com or 508.362.5328 … and we’ll see you there!

-> 2012 Banquet Flyer <-

Our on-site correspondent reports that the roads are still slick and icy in Hyannis but parking is still available and the 19th Hole is open for business. All who would like to join us for a fun run and some food and drink after are welcome but the staff was unable to find a safe route that we could call a race. So officially not a race but if you can excavate your car, consider coming up for a snowy group run through Hyannisport.

Yes, there really are perks for belonging to this club! In addition to getting killer prices on shiny, squeaky, new XTerra wetsuits, members have just been offered a special discount for the full New England Tri Tour race series – $10 off the total of all 3 races. That makes it $189 for individuals for all 3 races (Hyannis 1, Falmouth, and Hyannis 2) and $359 for relay teams. The discount is good for registrations received between 1 December 2011 and 31 March 2012. For instructions and the coupon code, or more information, contact Andy Scherding or CCAC … and thanks Lance and Tony!