500 Mile Club @ Todd's Road
I accomplished one of the most significant mile stone's in my running career this weekend. I made it into the Todd's Road 500 mile club. The 500 mile club is fairly self-explanatory, but the important thing is that all the miles have been completed during a Saturday morning run with the club.
Where do I rank this in the list of running accomplishments? I feel that it goes right along with completing my first marathon (Lincoln - 1999) and when I first qualified for the Boston Marathon (Flying Pig - 2003).
This accomplishment has a lot of qualities to it that are important to me such as, longevity and consistency. Those 500 miles also represent a lot of stories told and running strategies discuss. I have made some pretty good friends by running with the group.
My first Todd's Road Run
Soon after moving to Lexington, Kentucky, I was thrust into a different world of endurance training. I was used to doing all of my training sessions by myself. Occasionally, I would have someone to swim with at UNL, but not regularly. Upon moving to Kentucky, I meet Beth and Eric Atnip, who were in the process of gearing up for Ironman Wisconsin, along with Tyson Carroll.
To get me acclimated to a new town, they invited me to go run with "this group." Knowing I was out-of-shape, due to a summer of slothfulness and mowing lawns, I was a little nervous about saying "yes". The other part that seemed a little difficult was that we had to meet around 6:30am, so that we could be to "the clubhouse" by 7:00am.
At the clubhouse, everyone decided to run to "Judy Ray's" and come back. They told me it was a 12 mile run. I decided to try. It didn't take me too long to realized that running in Kentucky and running in Nebraska wouldn't be the same kind of experience. After what seemed like an endless line of hills, I shuffled up to the little country store that has been a point of rest many, many times. Making it back to the clubhouse, over the last six miles, was pretty challenging, but I made it. Then there were donuts to eat, some coffee to drink and others having fun. And Marty was there wondering what size of t-shirt I wanted (one I still have and actually wore on my 500 mile run).
I never thought about it until now, but it is pretty fitting that my first run at Todd's road was to Judy Ray's and my 500 mile run was to Judy Ray's (or the new coffee and sandwitch shop).
At the end of my 500 mile run, they had the "500 Miler" tape out for me to run through and champagne for a toast. Here's to 500 more!
Where do I rank this in the list of running accomplishments? I feel that it goes right along with completing my first marathon (Lincoln - 1999) and when I first qualified for the Boston Marathon (Flying Pig - 2003).
This accomplishment has a lot of qualities to it that are important to me such as, longevity and consistency. Those 500 miles also represent a lot of stories told and running strategies discuss. I have made some pretty good friends by running with the group.
My first Todd's Road Run
Soon after moving to Lexington, Kentucky, I was thrust into a different world of endurance training. I was used to doing all of my training sessions by myself. Occasionally, I would have someone to swim with at UNL, but not regularly. Upon moving to Kentucky, I meet Beth and Eric Atnip, who were in the process of gearing up for Ironman Wisconsin, along with Tyson Carroll.
To get me acclimated to a new town, they invited me to go run with "this group." Knowing I was out-of-shape, due to a summer of slothfulness and mowing lawns, I was a little nervous about saying "yes". The other part that seemed a little difficult was that we had to meet around 6:30am, so that we could be to "the clubhouse" by 7:00am.
At the clubhouse, everyone decided to run to "Judy Ray's" and come back. They told me it was a 12 mile run. I decided to try. It didn't take me too long to realized that running in Kentucky and running in Nebraska wouldn't be the same kind of experience. After what seemed like an endless line of hills, I shuffled up to the little country store that has been a point of rest many, many times. Making it back to the clubhouse, over the last six miles, was pretty challenging, but I made it. Then there were donuts to eat, some coffee to drink and others having fun. And Marty was there wondering what size of t-shirt I wanted (one I still have and actually wore on my 500 mile run).
I never thought about it until now, but it is pretty fitting that my first run at Todd's road was to Judy Ray's and my 500 mile run was to Judy Ray's (or the new coffee and sandwitch shop).
At the end of my 500 mile run, they had the "500 Miler" tape out for me to run through and champagne for a toast. Here's to 500 more!
posted by gary at 11:53 AM
1 Comments:
congrats!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home