Wednesday's Widgets
Alright, I couldn't come up with anything snazzy ... so there you have it!
I put in a good, hard 90 minutes on the stationery bike at Bally's in The Woodlands this evening. While there, I got a hold of Mr. Quarles to see about him writing a feature on HARRA member John Hill of Kingwood. Hill has burst on to the running scene lately with a masters win at the Chevron Houston Marathon with a time of 2:40 only to be followed up by a runner-up training run of 2:47 to finish second at the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and a 2:42 in Monday's 112th Boston Marathon.
This feature will run in the July/August edition of Footprints, which, of course, appears in Inside Texas Running, and will more than likely include wrap-ups of HARRA members at the Boston Marathon and the Beach To Bay Relay Marathon.
The May/June edition will include the first hand account of HARRA CPR/AED team member Ron Morgan and his work on Dr. Harvey Resnick, who collapsed during the Saturday, April 5 Chevron Bellaire Trolley Run 5K. Ironically, CPR/AED team leader Dr. Bob Hoekman's monthly column, already written in advance, was on the recent changes in CPR protocols.
(I had kept it quiet, but I felt like I needed to let Dr. Bob Hoekman know in case he got a phone call or two. When Roberta MacInnis first reported on the "downed runner" incident in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, April 10 and then I had received some additional information from Dr. Bob, I took a huge chance and wrote Runner's World editor Amby Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon winner, unsolicited to see if they would pursue a story about the program in that perhaps other running communities may look into their state's Good Samaritan laws about providing the same type of coverage that HARRA has pioneered. I had a favorable e-mail back, but I don't know if anything will come of it.)
May/June almost turned out to be my weakest effort ever in the last two years of putting together Footprints. I had a "filler" piece already layed down on "page 4". (Doug will go into shock that I let this happen!) I just wasn't into it. I knew though that they were going to go press Tuesday night, and I hadn't edited the piece nor was I happy about how it looked on the page. No offense, but it looked like some of the reports in the Austin Runners Club or Dallas Running Club sections -- long narrative pieces.
Sooooo ... I got a page full of News & Notes that covered events from the Blue Bell Run 10K to the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon to Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon (or make that 13.5-miler) to Sean Wade's out-of-state successes. A good smattering of happenings from various HARRA members the last month and a half.
I now feel a LOT better about how the May/June edition is going to look.
The big question is: Did I stick around for a third year at Monday night's Board Meeting? Well, it was kind of hard to turn Anna down when she looked down the table with this "Please don't leave" look. :)
Honestly, if there had been somebody interested that I thought would do a good, unbiased job, I may have considered passing the baton. It is really an honor and a great responsibility to make sure that we look good to the rest of the state. One person that doesn't get enough credit is Patrick Leung with RTN/ITR, who handles the layout. (If I had to do that, I'm not sure how good it would look.)
Although I think we have the "best of the best" working on HARRA's behalf, I am a little bit muted - as some individuals took the opportunity to take advantage of that fact early last fall - but I want to see HARRA with a stronger voice in the community.
(One of the things that I'm privately looking into is getting finish line tapes with the HARRA logo that we can go out to area races and give these to them -- and in return ask them to give our members a discount of a $1 or $2 at their race. It is something that once I get done, I'll discuss more with Anna and Jen Brown, who will be our new VP, Road Race Management for the '08-'09 year. Here's my take: How many races have finish line tapes? I know that two years ago at Race For The Cure 5K in downtown Houston -- with many key movers and shakers of the running community working the finish line -- Sean Wade crossed the finish line running through a stretched out piece of gauze bandage.)
We're losing two key members of the HARRA Board the past two years as Erin Foley and Sarah Graybeal will be moving out of their roles as Membership Chair and Webmaster. Both have incredibly helped HARRA transition to a more automated environment as it has related to registration and our web site. They're both incredibly busy -- one with kids and the other with launching space shuttles! :)
Did you know that there is a Spring Running Club and a Conroe Running Club? It is my understanding that the Spring Running Club is made up of some individuals that were part of Champions Fit -- perhaps Barbara can provide us with some more information -- and I heard about the Conroe Running Club, headed by a gentleman named Steve Yates, through an e-mail that I received from Ken Johnson about somebody looking for team members for a Beach To Bay Relay team.
Speaking of the Seven Hills Running Club in Huntsville, a number of items:
-- Norman Langwell, Jr. and family will be in Austin on Friday to meet Governor Rick Perry as he accepts his Fit Texan Award in conjunction with Saturday's Texas Roundup 10K. (I'd go over to watch the USA Masters 10K Championship, but I don't know if I can get to Oklahoma City in time to register for Sunday's marathon.)
-- The Woodlands Running Club president Tony Allison was the club's guest speaker at last week's quarterly club meeting. Tony spoke about his recent trip to the Antarctica Marathon where he picked up continent No. 4 - and traveled with Runner's World's John "The Penguin" Bingham.
-- If you've never run the Huntsville Half Marathon before, this should be your year. Why? As part of the 30th annual event, the Huntsville Half Marathon will produce a commerative finisher's medal. I'm already planning on helping to setup - and running it again. (At least I won't be deciding this year 20 minutes before the start of the race to run it.) Well, that is if Marathon 2 Marathon isn't on the same weekend.
Guess what? This year, HARRA's Fall Series event, the United Space Alliance 10-Miler, and Ten For Texas in The Woodlands will NOT be on the same weekend. Regardless, we'll still see - from those runners not doing fall marathons -- the majority of HARRA members doing the Space City 10-Miler and the Fit programs pushing runners to do Ten For Texas as it was being called by one of the last year's sponsors - and not the race organizer, the Community Associations of The Woodlands, as the "official 10-miler of the Fit programs".
There's so much more going on ... so stay tuned!
I put in a good, hard 90 minutes on the stationery bike at Bally's in The Woodlands this evening. While there, I got a hold of Mr. Quarles to see about him writing a feature on HARRA member John Hill of Kingwood. Hill has burst on to the running scene lately with a masters win at the Chevron Houston Marathon with a time of 2:40 only to be followed up by a runner-up training run of 2:47 to finish second at the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and a 2:42 in Monday's 112th Boston Marathon.
This feature will run in the July/August edition of Footprints, which, of course, appears in Inside Texas Running, and will more than likely include wrap-ups of HARRA members at the Boston Marathon and the Beach To Bay Relay Marathon.
The May/June edition will include the first hand account of HARRA CPR/AED team member Ron Morgan and his work on Dr. Harvey Resnick, who collapsed during the Saturday, April 5 Chevron Bellaire Trolley Run 5K. Ironically, CPR/AED team leader Dr. Bob Hoekman's monthly column, already written in advance, was on the recent changes in CPR protocols.
(I had kept it quiet, but I felt like I needed to let Dr. Bob Hoekman know in case he got a phone call or two. When Roberta MacInnis first reported on the "downed runner" incident in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, April 10 and then I had received some additional information from Dr. Bob, I took a huge chance and wrote Runner's World editor Amby Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon winner, unsolicited to see if they would pursue a story about the program in that perhaps other running communities may look into their state's Good Samaritan laws about providing the same type of coverage that HARRA has pioneered. I had a favorable e-mail back, but I don't know if anything will come of it.)
May/June almost turned out to be my weakest effort ever in the last two years of putting together Footprints. I had a "filler" piece already layed down on "page 4". (Doug will go into shock that I let this happen!) I just wasn't into it. I knew though that they were going to go press Tuesday night, and I hadn't edited the piece nor was I happy about how it looked on the page. No offense, but it looked like some of the reports in the Austin Runners Club or Dallas Running Club sections -- long narrative pieces.
Sooooo ... I got a page full of News & Notes that covered events from the Blue Bell Run 10K to the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon to Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon (or make that 13.5-miler) to Sean Wade's out-of-state successes. A good smattering of happenings from various HARRA members the last month and a half.
I now feel a LOT better about how the May/June edition is going to look.
The big question is: Did I stick around for a third year at Monday night's Board Meeting? Well, it was kind of hard to turn Anna down when she looked down the table with this "Please don't leave" look. :)
Honestly, if there had been somebody interested that I thought would do a good, unbiased job, I may have considered passing the baton. It is really an honor and a great responsibility to make sure that we look good to the rest of the state. One person that doesn't get enough credit is Patrick Leung with RTN/ITR, who handles the layout. (If I had to do that, I'm not sure how good it would look.)
Although I think we have the "best of the best" working on HARRA's behalf, I am a little bit muted - as some individuals took the opportunity to take advantage of that fact early last fall - but I want to see HARRA with a stronger voice in the community.
(One of the things that I'm privately looking into is getting finish line tapes with the HARRA logo that we can go out to area races and give these to them -- and in return ask them to give our members a discount of a $1 or $2 at their race. It is something that once I get done, I'll discuss more with Anna and Jen Brown, who will be our new VP, Road Race Management for the '08-'09 year. Here's my take: How many races have finish line tapes? I know that two years ago at Race For The Cure 5K in downtown Houston -- with many key movers and shakers of the running community working the finish line -- Sean Wade crossed the finish line running through a stretched out piece of gauze bandage.)
We're losing two key members of the HARRA Board the past two years as Erin Foley and Sarah Graybeal will be moving out of their roles as Membership Chair and Webmaster. Both have incredibly helped HARRA transition to a more automated environment as it has related to registration and our web site. They're both incredibly busy -- one with kids and the other with launching space shuttles! :)
Did you know that there is a Spring Running Club and a Conroe Running Club? It is my understanding that the Spring Running Club is made up of some individuals that were part of Champions Fit -- perhaps Barbara can provide us with some more information -- and I heard about the Conroe Running Club, headed by a gentleman named Steve Yates, through an e-mail that I received from Ken Johnson about somebody looking for team members for a Beach To Bay Relay team.
Speaking of the Seven Hills Running Club in Huntsville, a number of items:
-- Norman Langwell, Jr. and family will be in Austin on Friday to meet Governor Rick Perry as he accepts his Fit Texan Award in conjunction with Saturday's Texas Roundup 10K. (I'd go over to watch the USA Masters 10K Championship, but I don't know if I can get to Oklahoma City in time to register for Sunday's marathon.)
-- The Woodlands Running Club president Tony Allison was the club's guest speaker at last week's quarterly club meeting. Tony spoke about his recent trip to the Antarctica Marathon where he picked up continent No. 4 - and traveled with Runner's World's John "The Penguin" Bingham.
-- If you've never run the Huntsville Half Marathon before, this should be your year. Why? As part of the 30th annual event, the Huntsville Half Marathon will produce a commerative finisher's medal. I'm already planning on helping to setup - and running it again. (At least I won't be deciding this year 20 minutes before the start of the race to run it.) Well, that is if Marathon 2 Marathon isn't on the same weekend.
Guess what? This year, HARRA's Fall Series event, the United Space Alliance 10-Miler, and Ten For Texas in The Woodlands will NOT be on the same weekend. Regardless, we'll still see - from those runners not doing fall marathons -- the majority of HARRA members doing the Space City 10-Miler and the Fit programs pushing runners to do Ten For Texas as it was being called by one of the last year's sponsors - and not the race organizer, the Community Associations of The Woodlands, as the "official 10-miler of the Fit programs".
There's so much more going on ... so stay tuned!
posted by WalkSports.com | 11:38 PM
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