History of Westminster Road Runners Club

Club Origin

The club was originated in 1978 by Dave Herlocker, Sam Case, and Sam Alspach, all professors at Western Maryland College. The first newsletter was from June 1978 and the first race listed was the Carroll Country Carroll Caper 8-Miler on 18 June 1978. The original dues were $5.00 per member, $3.00 for a full-time student and $9.00 for a family membership. WRRC dues were unusual in that the dues year ran from March 1 to February 28. This changed in 1990 with the demise of the club's signature event, The Frostbite 5K & 15K, which was held at Western Maryland College in January. The dues reverted that year to the January 1 to December 31 calendar. The Fleet Feet store, owned by club member Jim Shank, was a sponsor and unofficial club headquarters from January 1979 until it closed in 1989. Doug Renner, on behalf of Marvin's Sports City, arranged
the WRRC to use the Marvin's outlet in the Town Mall (then know as Cranberry Mall) as the club's mailing address and as a center for race entry forms. This continued until Marvin's closed several years later.

Races

Frostbite Race
Our signature race was from was held at WMC, 5K and 15K, in early January on

Sunday mornings, from the early 1980s to 1990. The Frostbite was created and directed

as a class project at WMC, lead by Dave Herlocker. The races started and finished in

front of Gill gym and went across Main Street and out and back on Uniontown Road. A

warm post-race celebration was held in the cafeteria. Eventually the races got to be too

big and hard to manage hundreds of runners with traffic, especially across the busy

Route 31.

Midnight 5K runs & Triathlons
These runs were at midnight and held from Jim Shank’s Fleet Feet Running Store in 1986, 1987, and 1988.

The club tried to put on some triathlons; One from the college using their pool and one from the Cascade Lake off of Snydersburg Road.

Spring Season Handicap races
This series was held from early to mid 80s were great training runs to prepare for Summer Twilight series. The Handicap races were 2-mile runs, slower runners start first, faster later according to predicted and previous times. The finish was a mad dash by all levels of runners. Used to be just at WHS XC course and Robert Moton hills, and Route 32 / Washington Rd. (which was dangerous) for 6 consecutive weeks. The locations alternated: WHS, Piney Run trails, and NCHS.

Twilight Series

Had runs building from 2 to 10 miles.

2 miles on the track at Westminster High School or Western Maryland College
(now known as McDaniel College).
4 miles X-Country on Hibberd's farm in New Windsor. Eventually the run was
changed to Hashawha due to liability concerns.
4 miles at Pleasant Valley Fire Department; stayed the same.
10k at Piney Run Park and area roads. (no longer exists)
8 miles originally on the Millers-area roads. Eventually changed to Hampstead
area roads and then to Taneytown area roads. (no longer exists)
10 miles: originally from Community Pond on Route 140 and out and back on
Sullivan Road. Eventually this changed due to 140 being dangerous. The second
course ran from the Lemon and Sullivan intersection out Bachman Valley Rd and
back. (no longer exists)

Winfield Mile
The first year was 1985 and Frank was the race director. Jim Shank was the race director in 1986. Bob Sebastian was the race director from 1987 to 1989. Dave Herlocker directed the race for years. Alan Pobletts and his family directed the race from ~2001 to 2011. Bobby Ward and Jamie Sullivan helped out with the race in 2010 and 2011. Jamie Sullivan became the race director in 2012.

Main Street Mile
This annual rite of spring race down east Main Street from Fair Avenue to in front of the downtown Westminster branch of the library was started in 1982 by Jim Shank. Finishers of the then one heat race feasted on ice cream sundaes in the Treat Shop (now Johanssen's) at the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue. Although the course has remained the same with a downhill drop of 144 vertical feet, other changes such as the addition of a fun run heat, chip timing, pre-race day registration only, T-shirts and ice cream sandwiches instead of sundaes have occurred. This family-oriented race is the WRRC’s most popular event.

David Herlocker Bachman Valley Half Marathon

History of this race can be found HERE.

Past Club Officers

1978: Don Myers (President), Sam Case (Vice President), Phil Iddings (Secretary), Frank Schaeffer (Treasurer)

1979: Phil Iddings (President), Dave Herlocker (Vice President), Frank Schaeffer (Secretary), Kathy Bare (Treasurer)

1981: Jim Shank (President), Art Webster (Vice President), Dave Herlocker (Secretary), Janet Pabst (Treasurer)

1982: Art Webster (President), Gary Honeman (Vice President), Dave Helocker (Secretary), Janet Pabst (Treasurer)

1983: Frank Schaeffer (President), Rebecca Orenstein (Vice President), Dave Herlocker (Secretary), Janet Pabst (Treasurer)

1984: Frank Schaeffer (President), Dave Griffin (Vice President), Sam Alspach (Secretary), Vida Galinaitis (Treasurer)

1985: Jim Bullock (President), Greg Shaffer & Sam Case (Vice Presidents), Dave Herlocker (Secretary), Liuda Galainitis (Treasurer)

1986-2003: Unknown at this time

2003-2004: Dave Herlocker (President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer), Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager),
Rich Beck & Beth Weisenborn (Webmasters)

2005-2008: Dave Herlocker (President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer), Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager),
Rich Beck & Beth Weisenborn (Webmasters)

2008-2009: Dave Herlocker (President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer), Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager),
Beth Weisenborn (Webmaster)

2009-2010: Beth Weisenborn (President & Webmaster), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer),
Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager)

2011-2012: Bobby Ward (President), Sandy Montgomery (Vice President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer),

Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Beth Weisenborn (Webmaster)

2013: Bobby Ward (President), Sandy Montgomery (Vice President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer),

Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Ben Brown & Steve Kerzel (Webmasters)

2013-2016: Frank Schaeffer (President), Sandy Montgomery (Vice President), Chris Reese (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer),

Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Ben Brown & Steve Kerzel (Webmasters)

2017: Frank Schaeffer (President), Sandy Montgomery (Vice President & MSM Director), Fran McGovern (Secretary),

Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer & TWS Director), Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Steve Kerzel (Webmaster),

Ben Brown (Webmaster & BVHM Director), Kim Buhrman (BVHM Director), Chris Reese (TWS Director)

2018: Frank Schaeffer (President), Sandy Montgomery (Vice President & MSM Director), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer & TWS Director),
Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Steve Kerzel (Webmaster), Ben Brown (Webmaster), Cassandra Burke (BVHM Director),
Chris Reese (TWS Director)

2019: Frank Schaeffer (President), Ben Brown (Vice President & Webmaster), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer & TWS Director),
Joe Loveland (Equipment Manager), Steve Kerzel (Webmaster), Sandy Matthias (MSM Director), Cassandra Burke (BVHM Director),
Karen Stohrer (BVHM Director), Chris Reese (TWS Director)

2020-2021: Ben Brown (President), Craig Beyer (Vice President), Lori Scarbeau Lau (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer), Gary Honeman (Equipment Manager), Paul Kelly (Equipment Manager), Steve Kerzel (Webmaster), Vacant (BVHM Director), Sandy Matthias (MSM Director)

2022-Present: Craig Beyer (President), Grant Dell (Vice President), Lori Scarbeau (Secretary), Liuda Galinaitis (Treasurer), Gary Honeman (Equipment Manager), Paul Kelly (Equipment Manager), Steve Kerzel (Webmaster), Pam Garrettson (MSM Director)

Contributors: Jim Bullock, Liuda Galinaitis, Bob McCubbin, etc.
Compiled by: Beth Weisenborn, Ben Brown (continuing to update...)

Photo: WRRC runners for 1981 Maryland Club Championship in Columbia, MD.

Photo: 1983 Twilight Series age group winners