Christmas Run today.

I have talked about the Todd's Road Stumblers on a few occasions in the past. [Check out the posts here, here and my 500 mile club finish.]

Of all the "things" that have helped improve my running over the years, moving to Lexington, Kentucky and joining the Stumblers has been one of the top two "things". Why has the Stumblers helped my running so much? They helped me acheive the consistency of putting in the miles that a runner needs to help improve over time. There is one constant about this running group - and that constant is that there is always a fellow Stumbler that is willing to go 13, 15, 18 and even 20 miles with you.

There were many times through the winter of '02/'03 that a fellow runner would talk me into running 2 to 6 miles further than I really wanted to run. But in the end, I ran more miles than ever before and I ran a marathon personal best. (Thanks Phil, Jim, George and others....)

Today was the annual Christmas Run. It was also my first opportunity to join the group for the run, the carolling downtown and the McDonald's breakfast afterwards. It was great to see so many runners there to join in on the fun. And it was neat to see all the runners that I come in contact with at different times there to run together for a single run.

I have been grateful for the Stumblers over the past 4 years, but there is also one person that the Stumblers are very thankful for too - Mr. Alex Campbell. Mr. Campbell was the founder of the Stumblers a long time ago. This morning I was told that he started the group in 1968, but the website says 1975. In either case, Mr. Campbell has been the supporting thread and constant presense in the group. After running with the Stumblers for 4 years, I got to finally meet Mr. Campbell and tell him thanks.

Thank you again!

Sidenote: I saw another interview today with Mark Nenow. In it he talks about the Stumblers and some other interesting things.