Wednesday Night Treadmill

After walking from the Marriott Courtyard here to Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Sports Illustrated (no, not the swimsuit issue) and the Economist, I came back and got on the treadmill for an hour.

I need to repeat the feat tomorrow night after not doing anything for the last two evenings.

I had a post up a little earlier that I pulled back to draft mode because I wasn't sure exactly how it would come across. I think I need to preface it before I put it back out there. Over the past three years, Bill Dwyer and I have become pretty good friends and I feel like we've been able to get some things done - with some help - and will continue to do lots more.

We are continually giving each other a hard time, but we do it in complete fun. We both revel in it. And yes, I tease him mercilessly about getting back into the running game, and he will. And when he does, look out! As I've said before, Bill's got wheels. It is just the endurance that'll be put to test next weekend. However, I have this sneaky feeling Bill will be ready.

We trade e-mails back and forth constantly. Trading bits of information. And so on.

We've even established a business with the state of Texas. It is simply known as "Friends of the Running Community, L.L.C." It came about when we were pushing the Montgomery County Triple and Run Thru The Woods race director Roxanne Davis asked how to describe who was behind the effort. She simply put on their web site that it was an effort by friends of the running community - which is true.

We felt like we had an absolute coup of an event that started as an idea late last spring and that was to bring Bill Rodgers to The Woodlands to race Jeff Wells 30 years after their legendary duel in Boston. It would have been a 10K on the roads before the start of the Nike South High School Cross Country meet in October; however, Bill's friend, legendary marathoner and Distance Hall of Fame member Greg Meyer, wanted Bill to attend an event in Michigan that the folks that put on the Crim 10-Miler were putting together.

We could not get a road course approved by Montgomery County before Meyer kept pushing Rodgers to go to Michigan, and we were reluctant to send Bill his $3,500 fee - in advance - until we got the course approved.

We wanted to do something that was "cool", but also to honor Jeff Wells, The Woodlands cross country and track coach Dan Green (who turned 60 yesterday) and really provide an event that was over the top for the high school cross country runners. Bill had agreed to run the Open Race on Friday night and we were to have them speak to everyone that evening, appear in a running specialty store on Saturday afternoon, attend a TWRC social that night and then do a community run on Sunday morning (for all runners to attend) before flying back to Boston that evening.

But it was really Meyer that was pushing Rodgers. Bill is the nicest big name guy that you'd ever want to get to know. There had been many mornings here in Pasadena that I'd have been up for a little bit and I'd get a call from Bill Rodgers. One conversation, he said, "Yeah, I saw Sean (Wade) in Bermuda last week. He's really running well." And I pinching myself thinking, "I'm talking to one of the great all-time marathoners."

Other opportunities will come our way, and we'll have fun doing them.

And that is how we got into the Texas Independence Relay!

Now if you didn't understand all of that, you might think that the post that I'll put up some time on Thursday sounds a tad bit overconfident. It really isn't. It is just the type of humor and razzing that Bill, Rick Cook, Doug Spence and I give each other via e-mail. We occasionally pull others into the fray - like Andrew Perry or Kim Hager - dependent on the subject matter. The bottom line is that we're having fun. Something that some of the "serious runners" may never understand.

And if people can only find the one thing that they like about me is my daughter, I have no problem with that! :)