Unofficial Saturday

The WoodlandsFit schedule has a few off weekends built into the schedule when everyone is to run on their own. This year they fall on August 30 (Labor Day weekend), October 25 (Houston Half Marathon weekend), and November 9 (25K weekend). Steve Smith and I organized a workout for the Fall groups and the Houston Half groups under the TWRC banner and a few of the other Fit coaches had similar unofficial runs organized for their groups. We had about a third of the participants take advantage of the workout. Most of the assistant coaches slept in which is a good thing since they volunteer so much of their time.

The route would be a simple out and back of up to 10-1/2 miles. If more mileage was needed there were a couple ways to easily add miles and not get too far from the main route. While setting up coolers I saw TNT rebel runner Super Sue VanNatta and "Biker Chick" Deb Jech on her bike along side. Sue has qualified for Boston in every marathon she's ever run...27 of them. There was another couple runners about 200 yards behind Sue which I thought might be more of the rebels. It turned out to be Karen and Pete getting an early start on their long run. Karen is looking really fit the last few months. I stopped to say hello and probably screwed up her mile pace on her Garmin. I saw Dana-Sue Crews setting up the TNT workout as I passed by Shadowbend Park. I arrived at Luke's about 10 minutes before the Fall groups start at 6am. It was a very relaxed atmosphere for some reason. Everyone got started very close to on time. The Houston Half group began arriving soon after and they were off a half hour later. The workouts went well for everyone as far as I could tell.

Today's Observations and Notes
Christy is looking like she's starting to get her fitness back.

Najat did an easy 5 mile run to calm nerves before her trip to Austin later today. Her first race ever is the Human Race 10K tomorrow. She'll do great.

Jon called after a late start to Milano. He gave a race report from the Friday Night Lights 2.1 mile open race that Andrew Perry won. Jon made it to Milano with virtually no time to spare and thanks to a slight delay with the race made the start line in time. He's also off to Austin Sunday to run and then will be part of the Double Bigfoot Thunder Team Monday at The Woodlands Adventure Race.

Mike Lucas of Luke's Locker showed up at our training after everyone started. He opened the store for restroom access for the group which is always a popular move. He did lobby the group a bit for them to tell me I need to stay as the Beat Program coach next year. Hopefully it was all in fun as he knows I'm looking forward to a little change in 2009.

Susan sent this text from Virginia Beach "Listening to John the Penguin speaking, I'm crying" She called a few minutes later saying that she talked to him after he finished his presentation.

William Banes, Debbie Bower, Andrea Charbet, Kim Kitchens, Julie Donnelly and I met at Berry Hill for breakfast after.

It was a nice Saturday morning.