Today was just an absolutely beautiful day and an exceptionally fine evening to take in a training run with my PIM friends. The group was blessed to have Catherine Kruppa, aka the Catinator, speak on nutrition and healthy eating. Catherine knew exactly who her audience was, mostly new runners, and hit it out of the park with a ton of relevant information for the everyday person who is trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Our running community is lucky to have someone like Catherine take time out to come talk to us. Thanks, Cat!!!
While doing our training run (at a CONVERSATIONAL effort), I was talking to one of my PIMsters (we'll call her A) about her goals. She had missed the last couple of weeks but was so glad that she got out and came back tonight and didn't just quit the program altogether. I know how she feels when you slack off for a bit and you just beat yourself up and you end up just giving up. But you can always come back. It's never too late. Anyway, I was so glad that A came back and so was she. We started talking about her goals. I asked her what she wanted to get out of PIM and what she wants to do after. She said with this huge, enthusiastic smile, "Vic, I want to be a runner!!! I want to be one of those people that RUNS!!!" It was so exciting and motivating to me to see a new runner that psyched about running. If running ever becomes mundane for me? If I ever lose the joy of running? If it ever just becomes WORK for me, I'm going to remember what A said and how excited she was about what she was doing, about the change she was making.
Along with A, I'm starting to get a lot of questions like, "What do I do next? What do we do after the Cinco de Mayo 5K?" Several PIMsters want to tackle the half marathon distance. Of course, the first thing I'm going to do is direct these folks to the ONLY running club, The Houston Striders (Go Strider Nation), but beyond that, as far as a pay-for running program, I'm pointing folks to the Houston Fit Fall HM training program which stars the week of the Cinco de Mayo and trains through the hot summer. There are a number of goal races in the Fall but a bunch of folks are leaning towards doing the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Marathon/Half Marathon on November 15. I like HFit for these folks for a number of reasons. First of all, there should be a good sized group of Reds. And it's a structured program with group runs to keep you training through the summer heat. I don't know of any other beginner training programs that start in May and go through the Fall. If anyone has any ideas, post 'em in the comments.
Ok, to bed.
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