A Year Since Bike Trails Ribbon Cutting (and Snow), There Are Now 30 Miles of Bike Routes in Big Bear Valley (and No Snow Expected This Memorial Day Weekend)

It was a year ago, on the eve of last Memorial Day weekend, that we received about an inch of snow in the Big Bear Valley, but the chilly temperatures didn’t discourage 111 cyclists, who participated in the Bike Ride for Ryan Hall that the Lighthouse Project and the Big Bear Valley Trails Coalition had planned to follow the official ribbon cutting for the new bike trails within Big Bear Lake. A year later, there are now 30 miles of Class 3 bike routes within the Big Bear Valley—and we can expect better biking weather this Memorial Day weekend, as sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60s are expected. The Big Bear Valley Trails Coalition has, also, in the last year, developed bike trails maps, which are available free of charge from a number of locations throughout Big Bear, including the Visitor Center on Bartlett Road, the Big Bear Discovery Center on the North Shore, and the studios of KBHR Radio in the airport terminal building in Big Bear City.

Olympian Ryan Hall Makes a Podium Finish in This Morning’s 113th Annual Boston Marathon

The 113th Boston Marathon is underway this morning, and Ryan Hall has been at the front of the pack for much of the 26.2 mile race, which got started at 7am Pacific time and is available for viewing at UniversalSports.com. (Just before 9am, Hall, in bib #2, is one of two runners second from the front in the men’s elite division run.)
Update: Hall takes third!
The top finishers are in in the 113th Boston Marathon, in which local Olympian Ryan Hall was running. Though Hall set the pace early in the 26.2 mile race—with commentators noting, “Ryan Hall has bolted straight to the front of the field”–he finished within a minute behind Ethiopian winner Deriba Merga to take third place overall. Merga took first with 2:08:42, Kenyan Daniel Rono placed second with 2:09:32, and Big Bear High School graduate Ryan Hall earned a spot on the podium with 2:09:40. American woman Kara Goucher from Oregon also placed third, behind runners from Kenya and Ethiopia. Per commentators at the Boston Marathon, referencing podium wins for Hall and Goucher, “This is a major step forward for the Americans. This is an achievement.” Hall’s wife Sara, also a runner, was there to greet him at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Run Ryan Run: Local Olympian Hall to Compete in 113th Boston Marathon on Monday Morning

Big Bear High School graduate Ryan Hall will compete in his first marathon since the Olympics, in which he placed 10th, when he takes to the course in the 113th annual Boston Marathon, which gets underway on Monday, April 20. Hall, now 26, is among the elite athletes participating in the marathon, and has the fastest qualifying time at 2:06:17; the last time an American won the event was in 1983. Hall has been training for the Boston Marathon in Mammoth, where he and wife Sara live, and, he told the Runner’s Tribe, “Boston is the granddaddy of them all. To win Boston would be similar to winning the Olympics. It is a special title that no one can ever take from you. It is like saying you won the Tour de France or the World Series in baseball.” To view the Boston Marathon, in which Hall will compete in bib #2, you can log on to UniversalSports.com on Monday morning; coverage will begin at 6:30am Pacific time.

Lighthouse Project Wins Statewide Honor for the 2008 Move a Million Miles for Ryan Hall Campaign; Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park District Makes Award Presentation on March 17

Though the Lighthouse Project, whose mission is to create a child-honoring community, has only been in existence for just over two years, they have already claimed a statewide honor—that of the Champion of the Community Award from the California Recreation and Park Society. The award, which was applied for by the Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park District on behalf of the non-profit, went to the Lighthouse Project’s Move a Million Miles for Ryan Hall campaign, in which the Big Bear community moved over a million miles in just eight months’ time in support of local Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall. The free Move a Million Miles effort included over 3,300 participants, who walked, ran, skied, paddled and pedaled their way toward achievement of the community goal before presenting Hall with the mileage in a community send-off before he left for Beijing in August. All this community spirit, in addition to red “Run Ryan Run” hat Fridays, earned the Lighthouse Project the Champion of the Community Award. When Rec and Park’s Reese Troublefield and Lorie Judd accepted the award on behalf of the Lighthouse Project at this month’s statewide Recreation and Park convention in Santa Clara, they report that the entire crowd gasped at Big Bear’s achievement. The prestigious award has since been presented to the Lighthouse Project’s founder Tim Wood and Director Beth Gardner during the Rec and Park Advisory Commission meeting on March 17, during which time Troublefield said, “We are very proud and lucky to have you as a partner.” The Lighthouse Project plans to continue the momentum of their Million Miles campaign when, on May 16, they host Run Ryan’s Run around Big Bear Lake. [Update: The run has since been pushed back to 2010.]

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