Jeff Holman worked as a cartographer for AAA for 21 years, so he knows something about putting things on the map. He and his fellow runners are hoping to do just that with East Bay Front Runners and Walkers, an active group of 85 runners and walkers who roam the hills and coastlines across the bridges.

"Inevitably," Holman, president of EBFRW, said, "when we got to a Front Runners event in San Francisco, we run into runners who say, 'Hey, I didn't know there was a Front Runners in the East Bay.' We're just one of many chapters of International Front Runners. The Bay Area is well represented with other clubs."

In addition to the East Bay group (www.eastbayfrontrunners.org), the Bay Area boasts the founding chapter San Francisco Frontrunners (www.sffrontrunners.org), BayLands FrontRunners on the Peninsula (www.baylands.org), San Jose Frontrunners, Walkers & Wheelers (www.frontrunners.org/clubs/index.php?club=SanJose), and Sonoma County Frontrunners and Walkers (www.frontrunners.org/clubs/frameit.php?club=SonomaCounty).

(I know, I know: you're asking yourself is it "Front Runners" or "Frontrunners." It all depends on the typographical leanings of the individual club. But if you are bothered by such trivialities, you really ought to get out and run to get your mind off it. After seven miles or so it just won't matter any more.)

"One thing that makes East Bay Front Runners unique is that we have runs at different venues," Holman added. Each Saturday, the group runs and walks at one of five different locations in Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, or Lafayette, and alternates between two locations for its

Club President Jeff Holman

Wednesday evening runs. Saturday runs are followed by group brunches at a local restaurant.

"Of all the runs, I probably like Strawberry Canyon the best," he said. "I enjoy the hills and getting off the pavement."

Holman, 49, joined the club in 2003 and became its president in 2005.

"For me, it was a real opportunity to find community," he said. "That was my main motivation. I was looking for gay people who share a common interest. This was my first running club. It really is a great way to meet people, to find community around a healthy activity. That's a real plus for a lot of folks who come to Front Runners. It's a morning activity, not focused on the bar scene. There's a big social component to it as well."

Holman wasn't always a runner.

"I didn't start running until my early 30s, when I realized I needed to get some fitness into my life. I got into it gradually over time. It's been a great hobby for 17 years now," he said.

The club will hold its fifth annual Pride Run and Walk October 10 at Lake Merritt. Last year's event drew 45 participants, its biggest turnout ever, and will allow the club to donate $400 or $500 to local nonprofits this year, Holman said.

Holman said there were about three straight members of the club. As is the case with many LGBT sports groups, the membership is primarily gay men. Women interested in joining the club should contact Roxanne Fiscella, women's outreach coordinator, at roxfis@gmail.com.

The club will have its annual meeting and dinner Sunday, January 25. Reservations and information for the event are available at www.eastbayfrontrunners.org.

Sports briefs

One Utah ski week apparent casualty of Prop 8

The Park Record in Park City, Utah, reported last week that the 2009 Utah Gay & Lesbian Ski Week scheduled for January 7-11, had been canceled because of what organizers said was reduced registration due to resentment of the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the passage of California Prop 8, blocking same-sex marriage. The paper quoted organizer John Harriot of West Hollywood as saying that about 50 people would normally register in advance and 150 or so attend, but only six had registered this year.

"In the mind of the boycott organizers, the Mormon Church basically, equals Utah," he told the Park Record, which said it was the first evidence that Park City's economy had been hurt by an anti-Prop 8 boycott.

But that was not the picture at Mt. Ogden, about 250 miles south of Park City, which is near Salt Lake City. SAGA North reported 14 members of the Bay Area LGBT ski club made its scheduled January 10-14 trip to the Utah Rockies.

"Our trip went ahead," club spokesman Steve Marshall told the Bay Area Reporter, "and we did hook up with a large gay group from Chicago. Some of our guys went out to the gay clubs and they were full."

Driver says Knick tried to curry his favors

New York City newspapers last week reported that center Eddy Curry of the New York Knicks has been sued for sexual harassment by his former male driver for trying to "solicit gay sex," making him clean up towels soiled with Curry's semen, trying to get him to touch him and calling the driver such things as "cracker," "white devil" and "grandmaster of the KKK." Oh yeah, and also threatening him with a loaded gun.

Curry, the father of four children, has denied all of the allegations. The driver, David Kuchinsky, who has served time for burglary and put on probation for resisting arrest, is seeking $98,000 plus $5 million in damages.