On the Fence

Our newest training group is off to a great start....or in most cases off to a great continuation in training. Saturday morning was pretty cool. Four different groups used Market Street as thier start/finish. WoodlandsFit started at 6:30am, our Luke's Locker group started at 7am, the YMCA group led by Sandra Sutherland started at 7:30am and The Woodlands Running Club (TWRC) at 8am.

Our group knocked out their workouts pretty easily. I had changed the route up a bit which did cost two of our runners to miss a turn so 11 miles became 13 and 16 became 18. Both are very solid runners so it wasn't that big a deal.

We are eight weeks out from event day and the group is positioned perfectly to do very well. One of the coaches ( me ) has been plugging along at the training and I hope to be in some sort of shape by race day. I did slip a bit from mid October through the first week in November with the accident, SF trip, Light the Night, and....taking a week off to recharge.

I've been on the fence about running the Run thru the Woods 5 miler and really would rather volunteer that actually do it, mostly because I know it won't be a very good effort on my part. Our training group and many of the rebels will be running it and all have been asking me if I will be running it also.

Between the groups in the parking lot and Starbucks I saw many of my running friends. First was Sandra Sutherland, who is one of the most positive people I know, and then I visited with WoodlandsFit coaches Sue Rouse, and Rich Cooper and the original 104TX race director Lonnie Brauner. 10:00am rolls around and Luke's is open so I head into the store to see were I'll be working later in the day for the Run Thru The Woods packet pick up. Fellow TWRC member Jim Braden & his wife are working the table. In comes TNT runners Sue Van Natta & Mike Csikos, then Jon Walk, and TWRC president Scott Campbell, race director and friend Roxanne Davis and pretty much a steady stream of people I know. An hour later I'm on my way home. Kim Hager calls to see how training went....she's doing double duty as swim mom and soccer mom at the same time. Kim is always uplifting and has made some well placed comments to me that really make me want to get back to more than just "in shape".

I was back at Luke's for my 4 - 6pm shift at packet pickup. Another friend Nancy Prejean had the shift before me. After having everyone all day long ask if I'm running Thursday I handed Nancy the $22.00 entry fee and picked up my bib number 1738. The funny thing is that for the next two hours handing out packets I didn't see anyone I knew at all other than the Luke's staff working around me. Well....it won't be pretty but

I'll be on the starting line come Thursday morning.