History of the Club and Host Stores
Last update Sept. 10, 2011 - Return to the Foothill Flyers Main Page
On Saturday, September 10, 2010, the second annual club BBQ, picnic and reunion was held at Arcadia County Park....see the photos.
Alumni members left to right: Elaine Hemmenway, Suzanne Britt (designed the club logo), Barbara Hartley, Jack Wilson (first club president), Richard Bruckner (we do his loop in the summer past his backyard fence on the horse trail), Cecily Park, and down in front is Ben Almeida.
25th Anniversary cake and Robert and Maria Vangilder cooking the burgers and hot dogs in 2010.
Click on the map above and print out a copy to take with you on the run. The numbers on the map are the mileage between the stores. The photos below show what those locations look like today. This is not a race, do what you can at your own pace, bike ride or even drive in your car.
Walkers off at 9:30AM and runners at 10:00AM. Walkers or those wanting a shortcut can turn up 2nd or 5th from Duarte Rd to rejoin at California St and you will only miss the Second Sole store. Chow down when you get back or around 11AM.
History of the Club Stores
In August of 1979, Bill and Sandy Johnson opened a Loeschorn's For Runners franchise store at 147 N. Santa Anita Ave. in Arcadia. Customers on their own gathered on Wednesday evenings to run from the store, and later formed a chapter of the Loeschorn's running club.
What is going on today at 147 N. Santa Anita? Who can tell.
In 1981, Bill and Sandy moved to 145 E. Duarte Rd. Nancy Tinker worked for them in this store. Today, it is a beauty shop, but next door we could have used the massage parlor. The first club Clamshell Trail run was held on Christmas Eve morning in 1982 and everyone was given a trophy by Bill and Sandy. Tom and Mary Ann O'Hara organized their first marathon trip for the club in Dec. 1983 - Honolulu. Richard and Nancy Gilmore went to this marathon for their honeymoon. Bill and Sandy's store went out of business in February 1985
In March 1985, where the Jewelers is now at 668 W. Huntington Dr., Monrovia, we started running out of the Second Sole Shoe Store. The group voted to keep the club going but with no dues and to call ourselves simply, "The Running Club" rather than remain part of the Loeschorn group of clubs. We found that we did need a newsletter to keep everyone informed and it was decided that dues would be just enough to cover the cost of a newsletter and no more. See the March 1985 meeting notes and letter.
While at Second Sole, The Running Club discussed picking a name that better described the club. Road Warriors almost won, but Paul Jennings suggested the Foothill Flyers and that got the most votes at a meeting on November 13, 1985. See the name change letter. In June1986 the club rented a bus to wine taste in the Santa Ynez Valley and then overnight in Lompoc for the Valley of the Flowers half and full marathon. See the May 86 newsletter where members started doing the Catalina Marathon and the first Angeles Crest 100 begins. The Second Sole store lasted just 2 more years and we thought that it might be a jinx for a store to host us.
Bob Nielsen at Haugens Sporting Goods at 207 S First Ave in Arcadia didn't believe in the jinx and even stayed open an extra few hours on Wednesday nights for us. They specialized in team clothing. Club member Suzanne Britt, a graphic artist, designed the club logo and club T-shirts were ordered from Haugens. We ran from here from February 1987 to September 1994 when they too went out of business. Today the location is a Pet Boutique. We kept on meeting to run and started from the NE corner of the Arcadia County Park parking lot. That was fine until it got cold and rainy.
Teamates, a past competitor of Haugen's welcomed us to come inside during bad weather and run out of their back parking lot from November 1994 to June 2000. Their bathroom was so grungy, that Shar Anderson could not take it anymore and organized a raiding party of club members one weekend to go in and renovate it with a complete scrub down, wall paper, flooring, and fixtures. The parking lot was really too small as the club grew and Teamates partnership was breaking up so here we go again. Thanks to REI we have now been running from their parking lot for 10 years - maybe the jinx is finally broken.
