Weekend Update

WoodlandsFit organizer Rich Cooper gives motivational and training advice

Saturday morning was picture perfect for an easy 10-13 miler for our WoodlandsFit group. Our group is looking great and would have done very well if the Ten for Texas went on as originally planned today. Everyone will be a month stronger for the now rescheduled event. After the run we had our half way there party to talk a little about where we've started from, how far we've come and how to stay motivated through the upcoming shorter daylight hours.

Sunday was a very cool day. Thanh Dinh was a very good high school runner at Spring in 1990. He organized a reunion of his high school team that included my long time running buddy Ralph Ridenhour and myself. Ralph and I are neighbors and were pretty solid runners for the FM1960 Roadrunners in the mid eighties. Ralph's PR for the marathon is 2:53. My 1:26:21 half marathon PR came with Ralph two steps behind me until the half marathoners turned to finish and the marathoners continued on. All I could think about was...wow, this is how fast you need to run to break 3 hours. I never broke 3 but was pushed and pulled in just about every event by Ralph and owe most of my PR's to him.

Ralph's daughter ran track and cross country for Spring and she and her team mates would run a lot of our workouts and many of the same fun runs with us. The regular group included myself, Ralph, his daughter Kim, Darrell Lampe and his son Dion, Thanh Dinh, Todd Miller, Steve Honie, and his son Scott. We would gain a few others from time to time but this was our regular group. Sunday mornings would be spent meeting at Darrell's home and when doing some of our long runs it wasn't unusual to run from near Old Town Spring to Oak Ridge HS and back.

Time Capsule
Steve moved to The Woodlands and Scott became a very good runner on Dan Green's team and went on to The University of Texas. Steve would train with Dan with his Wednesday night group and eventually set a marathon PR of 2:42! (Steve & Scott were not at the reunion) Kim was a very good runner at Spring and competed in college at Sam Houston State. Darrell set his marathon PR in 1989 of 3:49 at the Houston marathon. Ralph and I ran BQ qualifiers that year. Darrell would battle cancer in May and he passed away in June. He is one of the reasons I do what I do for cancer charities. When I ran Boston in 1990 I actually ran his PR time to the second, and it wasn't planned. Dion was one of the best milers in the state. He was always just a few steps behind Eric Henry from The Woodlands. Dion went on to run at Stephen F. Austin. Todd was a solid high school runner and If my memory is right I believe he attended Stephen F. Austin also. Thanh was a top high schooler and went on to run for SMU...and of everyone at the reunion he looks like he's still in great shape. Ralph and I are a long way from where we were 20 years ago.

Sunday's reunion was pretty cool and we all shared a lot of memories. It was mostly for the "kids" (all in their 30's now with families) but it was very special for Ralph and I to be included. Their High School Coach Diane Wholey also attended. She was a very good coach for Spring when she was there. She's now the Assistant Head Coach for both men's and woman's track & field at Texas Tech.

Thanh is planning the next reunion for the Cowtown Marathon in February 2010. I'll be there.

Ralph frequently cooked pancakes for the group after a long run so Thanh included them at the reunion.

Oh my! There is a picture of me at about 140 pounds in the stack.

At least I'm not alone. There are three of us that need a little extra work to be close to the old days.

After a few hours at the house I was off to our Light The Night packet pickup and sing with the band fundraiser. I had invited Dana-Sue Crews and her Remission Run committee so they could meet our committee and hopefully expose their event to a lot of people.

Our event was well attended and lot of fun. The highlight for me was making a donation for Waverly Walk to sing with the band and hearing here do a wonderful job with Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw". She is a very talented singer.

Bill Crews Remission Run 5K planning committee hard at work.
Waverly Walk sings with the band.