Busy week

I am glad this week is over. It has been very hectic. I have been trying to prepare for my wife surprise party that went over without a hitch. She was very happy and did not have a clue. Thank you to all who were able to come out and celebrate her special day.

I have been busy this week also working on the annual Bartram Forest Marathon/50K trail race on November 27,2010. I have run this race before and wanting to do it again. Mandie and I were out eating supper one night and ran into Kevin Hatfield who is the race director. He told me that due to an overloaded schedule of night classes in college that he was not able to put on the race again. I asked him that if we helped out, could we still have it. He agreed. Well now Deb Botkin and myself are co-race directors for Bartam this year. I now have a different perspective of RDs.

I received an email from a very experienced runner this week by the name of Kay Allen. Kay was the national female Carolina champion trail runner. She was wanting to run Bartram this year but heard that it might be cancelled. I quickly e-mailed her back to let her know the race is going to be on this year. It is always exciting to met big name runners that want to come and run our local race. Last year we had the president and vice-president who started the 50 states/ 50 marathon club run with us.

I have been sending e-mails out and answering the ones I have received. I was lucky that Kevin still had some of his contacts from the race. I have been trying to get companies to donate items for our race. I have been trying to get goodies for the bags, tables during the race and for post-race awards. So far I know that RoadID is sponsoring us by donating 100 free race bibs, 6 road ID bracelets and 100 discount coupons for the ones who would like to order a bracelet. I have several other companies that I am waiting to hear from. If anyone has contact information on a company that might be willing to help us with donating items, please let me know.

Yesterday our training group was suppose to go out for a 10 mile run. There was a local 10K race going on so we decided to go out for a 4 mile pre-run warmup before running the race. When we started out, it was about 73 degrees and very humid. We went out for the first 2 miles of the course and came back. OMG it was nothing but hills. The course reminded me of a camel's back. Up and down the entire way.

We started out with a run/walk ratio of 1:30/45 seconds. We have been doing a 2/1 but found this new ratio and I like it. When you compare the two of them, it is the same percentage ratio but a lower number for a quicker turn over.

I have to give a big thank you to the race director of Caring Hands ( I believe that was the name of the race ). It was a very hilly course that was laid out very well. There was a great crowd support along the course with people playing theme music from Rocky while cheering us along. Great water stops with the volunteers bringing the water to us in the middle of the road. Normally they stand beside the table and you have to go to them. Lots of orange cones along the course to help with traffic. Normally you have to watch for traffic and dodge cars along the way. A great race and I will definitely run it again.

I have to take my hat off to our awesome group of runners. Stef and Karen took 1st in their age groups and Sean and Nicole took 3rd in their age group. I think I came in 4th since Sean got 3rd. Well if I have to loose to someone, it might as well be someone I run with. I am most proud of what I heard during the race. As we were running up the hills, I heard "Shorten your stride up the hills". I quickly turned my head and said "Wow, yall have been listening to what I have said". Then about a mile later I heard "Run like you have ski poles in your hands". That is what I have told them to think as they run up hills. For me it makes me think of cross country skiing. If you have poles in your hands, it makes it easier to go up a hill.