Tough Decisions

As much as I hate to admit it and try to deny it, I am a small town girl. How can I not be when I have returned to my roots? After graduating from college and getting married, I settled in that small town and returned to my school and began coaching track. Last year was my sixth year coaching. I have watched boys and girls become young men and women. This past fall at a football game I saw one of my former students with her husband. Wow!

Yesterday I made a bold decision. I resigned my coaching position. I cried A LOT. I love that school. I love the other coaches I can now call my friends. I love the kids. But, things have changed rapidly at the school and I felt like my role had become obsolete. Until last year it was just me coaching the distance runners. This past season I had a staff. Midway through the season I saw things from the outside and realized I wasn't doing anything. The new cross country coaches don't even know who I am. Doesn't that seem problematic? Track meetings have been held without me. Shouldn't I be part of the decision making?

Truth be told, I wanted to quit a year ago. I had coached a girl all the way to state and she was my first who would be running competitively in college. I had achieved what I set out to do. But, there were other people I had been coaching for a few years that I wanted to see through to their final season. Really, though, won't there always be somebody to see through?

Resigning this position is bittersweet. It's the first and only job I have loved. There are new adventures to have, though, and it's time to look forward without regret.

Flying Feather Four Miler

It's tradition in my family that you run a race on Thanksgiving Day. We ALWAYS run the Turkey Trot, but competition has brought new races to Columbus and this year we decided to give another one a try. We ran the Flying Feather Four Miler. This race is only in it's second year but has become hugely popular because for the price you get a long sleeve technical shirt, discounts to the spa it's held at, cookies and lots of other goodies, and most importantly--a bottle of wine for finishing.

It was raining/sleeting on Thanksgiving morn so the walk to the race kinda sucked. We got there too late and had to line up way in the back. It took over a mile for the crowd to thin out and I swear I probably passed 1000 people during the race. I started my watch when I crossed the start line. My splits were 9:00, 8:30, 8:00, and 7:30 for an overall time of 33:06 (although not my official time).

I thought the race was overcrowded and needed a little better organization to handle the numbers it brought in. Being that it's only in its second year I'm sure they'll smooth out the wrinkles. And the bottle of wine was pretty good.

Check it Out!

Looks like I am this month's featured athlete.

You Gotta Read This

You gotta read this. And I was there, in person, to witness it.

Thursday Thoughts

Dave and I are really trying to trim the fat. And I'm not talking about on our bodies. We're trying to reduce our expenditures.

What are some cost savings ideas you have?

Published

A few months ago I was contacted by a publishing company asking permission to use one of my self portraits in a book. I agreed and it has finally been published. The book is called "For Buckeye Fans Only: Wonderful Stories Celebrating the Incredible Ohio State Fans" by Rich Wolfe. It will be available beginning December 28th and currently can be pre-ordered from Barnes and Noble.

I'm Lucky, Again

I have slowly been making my way back to running. It has been hard to get motivated to get out there and run knowing it's colder and grey and in between training sessions. Friday I decided to go to the gym to run. I got in a good 4 miles on the treadmill. As I was leaving the locker room a girl came up to me asking if I was done with my workout and leaving the gym. I said yes and she asked if I wanted a complimentary shampoo and blowdry. (There's a spa on site.) Um, hell yeah!

So I looked all great after my workout and Dave took me out to dinner.

You like me, you really like me!

I've been nominated, people! I've been nominated for best endurance blog of the year. Check it out! I haven't checked out all the blogs on there, but the ones I know are triathlete blogs, so I may be one of the only running specific blogs. I'm quite the underdog. The voting will be in December, so please go out and vote, vote, vote!

At Work Warrior

I work for a gigantic company. Working for such a large company has its perks, but those perks don't always trickle out to the 12 different buildings the company occupies. I work in one of the only buildings that the company doesn't solely own. Which means, we are the only building without a cafeteria and until recently, the only building that did not have free workout facilities.

I applied and received my free lockerroom pass so that I could run with friends at work during lunchtime. I got my pass about a month ago. Yesterday was the first day I used it. I met my dad (who also works for the big company), Rich (retired from said big company), and Darryl (also works for big company) and ran 5 miles. It was a rough 5 miles as it was super windy and we had to run fast to get in 5 miles during our lunch break. This was my first run back since the marathon and 8:00/miles is not what I was expecting. I felt great, though, and I'm not even sore today.

I don't know that this will become an everyday thing, but I enjoyed the break from work and getting to run with people on a weekday.

Thursday Thoughts

It's been a while since I've done a Thursday Thoughts, but I thought of a question this morning.

What was your favorite costume you wore as a kid for Halloween?

My favorite: one year my sister and I went dressed as a Dominos pizza box (my sister) and the Noid (me). I might have time find a picture of that and post it.