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Tuesday November 24, 2009 Toys for Tots: Our Toys for Tots races will be held in just over 10 days. This has become a very popular race in the AORTA stable and we should have a couple hundred runners if we repeat the results from last year. The last day for you to be guaranteed a t-shirt is November 30th. Now, we all know what that means despite the fact that many of you try to scam the system each year. It means we MUST have your application AND money in our hands by Monday the 30th. It doesn't mean postmarked the 30th. It doesn't mean you intended to send it the 30th but tripped on a dust bunny and missed the mailman. It doesn't mean you call us on the 30th and say you'll probably be at the race and for us to hold a t-shirt for you! Are we clear, last day is the 30th? This year we have a new course and we'll have lots of food after the race. And don't forget to bring a toy, it's for a great cause... Plans for
Saturday the 28th have been posted.
Race Updates: Just over a week ago Bob Banks, Tom Lawry and
Maggie Lawry were all at Chickamauga for the half and full marathon.
Bob Banks broke through 4 hours with a 3:57, Tom, who foolishly thought
we didn't know he was going, finished with a good 4:19 and Maggie ran
and finished the half in a very respectable time despite little training
from a recent injury. Bob reported that the weather couldn't have
been better. Congratulations to all of them.
Sorry kids: I've been in NYC the past 5 days and so there have
been no updates. I would think our most important business item
would be that there is a 5K on Thanksgiving Morning starting at 8:00am.
The race will start at the Moore's Mill Club and as I understand it will
run along the golf course.
You can get all your information here. In the past we've
always had our own run on Thanksgiving morning but this year we'll do
this race instead. This is going to be VERY informal, I think we
are going to start the clock when we leave and I don't think anyone is
recording the time. All proceeds are going to the Auburn Food
Bank, a good cause.
Thursday Update: These sources I have who tell about different
ones secretly doing races are supposedly your "friends" but they are
ratting you out! Think about it. Tom Lawry, Maggie Lawry and Bob
Banks are heading to the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon this weekend.
Maggie is running the 1/2 and Tom and Bob are attempting the full. I
hear that's a great setting for a marathon so good luck to them. Plans are set for Nov14 & Nov21. If you would like to be a volunteer for a water stop please contact Molly Johnson. November birthdays have been posted. Callaway: AORTA invaded Callaway Gardens in force this past Saturday afternoon for the Twilight 10K. Here are the results:
Alicia
Fite 1:12:17 * Next in line will be the San Antonio, TX full and half marathon this Sunday. Why is San Antonio so popular? I have no idea. In the full marathon will be Beth Ladisla, Gary Leung and Eric Gilbertson. Beverly Long had signed up and trained for the half but last week her mother became very ill and she's had to cancel which is very unfortunate. Underworld:
I did get
some feedback about what some of our runners are doing in the coming
weeks. Oliver Prigge is headed to do a full Ironman Triathlon this
weekend but I'm not sure where he's going. Scott and Laura Walker
are planning on doing the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville which is
always in December. There are a number of Auburn runners signed up
so I'll check out that list. Blake Henry is on the "injured
reserves" and waiting for things to get better with his knee.
Lance & Lacey are planning to run the ING Marathon in Atlanta. I
was told Kermit doesn't have any plans to run anything specific which to
me means he'll probably run everything that comes along. That's
just how he is. On the darker side of things we have John Nevels
who will be running the Pinhoti 100 this Saturday (and Sunday). In
my opinion never run a race that is published as lasting 2 days, it's
just a good rule of thumb I think. Fred Trouse will be along as
the support team and run the last 15 miles or so with John. Marcus
Farris and Eric Gilbertson will be there to as volunteers. I'm
sure there is more but that's all my secret sources have revealed so
far... Sorry!:
Sorry
about the miserable weather on Saturday. Those idiots who ran at
5:00 and 5:30 got soaked! I don't have to say when I started but
it put a real damper on the Saturday run. Seems like between races
and bad weather it's been a long time since we had a nice normal
Saturday run but maybe we will this week.
Results
from the Forestry Preserve 5K Pumpkin Run: My apologies to Roger Keel and those who did the Pumpkin Run on the 17th. I'm about a week late in getting this posted for you but here are the results from that race!
No mas!
Word
has come down from our Race Czar that AORTA is already booked through May of
2010 to help with any races. The calendar filled up this year in
record time and with the time commitment and number of volunteers to do
these races we have reached our limit.
Forestry Preserve 5K:
Our
race director, Nick Holler asked that I post this: I want to say a
big thank you to all of you who helped to make the Trail Run a success
again this year. We lucked out on the weather and the runners (96
finishers) all stayed on course. We could not put on this race without
the support of A.O.R.T.A., and I really do appreciate the presence of
experienced helpers. Some of you have helped at each Trail Run since
its inception. I'm proud to be part of an organization whose members
are so willing to provide excellent opportunities for runners, and to
unselfishly support races that generate funds for worthwhile causes.
Nick Runs for Oct 31 & Nov 7 are posted so contact Molly to help with the water!!! Monday: On Sunday
Micah Mauldin was in Washington D.C. for the Marine Corps Marathon.
He emailed me this on Sunday "I finished in 3 hours and 27 minutes.
This was my first marathon and I learned two things: 1) registering for
a marathon then deciding not to do it and then two weeks before the
marathon deciding to do it is not a good idea and 2)i'm never running a
race again. Not a 5k, not a one mile fun run. I've crowned myself the
champ and retired. " He makes about the 263rd person I've known
who swore never to run another marathon after that first one. A
week or two will pass, he'll change his mind and do 2 or 3 more before
the season ends. Let's see if I'm right on this or not.
Congratulations to Micah and I know Jim Doyle has run this race many
many time so I expect he was there too. Callaway: The 11th
Annual Gardens 10K run will be a twilight run this year - starting at
4PM (eastern) Saturday, November 7th. The course will be through the
Callaway Gardens FANTASY IN LIGHTS. The run is one week before FANTASY
opens to the public and the first time that the 10K has been held on the
FANTASY course.
See more at Active.com. Thanks to Lucy Lamar for that tip! Races: More races have
been added to our calendar. We have the
Moore’s Mill Club Turkey Trot in Auburn on Thanksgiving Day.
The 9th Annual Turkey Burner 5K on November 21st in Montgomery.
The "Rumpshaker 5K" in Birmingham next March. Or the Peachtree City 50 &
25K on November 8th. You can find information on these races and
more on our calendar. Final results from the SGA 5K on 18Oct09 Exceptions: I told you
earlier today that you had to fill out your birth date on the membership
form in order for us to be able to put you on the birthday list.
We don't magically know everyone's birthday. Of course, that
doesn't explain why Peyton (AORTA nonmember) was on there except that
she reminded me a hundred times. I'm going to make an exception
because I got the saddest email from a legitimate member I hope this will make a little boys dream come true! Birthdays: Sorry I was so late in getting the birthday's posted for this month, we blew right past Jim Doyle's birthday. A few have asked why their birthday wasn't posted and the answer is very simple. Remember that membership form you were supposed to fill out? You didn't a) fill out your birthday or b) you didn't return the form at all, only a check. Thus, we ain't got your birthday. Perdido Key:
AORTA dispatched their all girl team (with Alvin Walls as chaperone) to
Perdido Key this weekend to compete in the Flora-Bama Hot to Trot
Reverse Duathlon. Here are the results along with photos to prove
they were there: Saturday, October 24: There won't be a run from Kaz this Saturday, we'll be at the Forestry Preserve for the 5K. You can download the application above. Results for the Tough Ten & Tough Two! Water problems:
You took her for granted and now she is dropping the
hammer on you! Molly has reported that NO ONE volunteered for
water this Saturday, the 17th. So, to quote Molly "tell them to
bring their own water"! I'm ashamed of all of you... You can
stop at the tennis courts on Samford Ave and get water or bring some
money to stop and get water at the gas station like we used to do.
Runnertainment:
Word has reached us from the AORTA Utah satellite office
that former member Jocelin Gibson turned in an excellent 3:31 marathon
time at the St. George Marathon. If I'm not mistaken that is a
really hilly route. Awesome time Joc, congratulations. Thursday:
We are just over 1 week away from the
Tough Ten and
Tough Two Races which will be held on the 10th. If you haven't
sent in your application then you are clogging up the system and causing
undo hardship! This has always been a great race in a great
setting and the weather has shaped up for us very nicely. Wednesday:
Sorry but this week you only get one update. Today
you will find that the links above are working but some also have
active.com registration so I'll go back and start over again to
accommodate them. Race directors are the worst prima-donnas
around. Saturday: I've added several more races to our calendar. I don't think it's ever been this full, lots of races in our area! And I've added the icons to the top, I know they don't have links yet but I'll get those soon... Updates and corrections:
Molly has come forward and confessed that she didn't win
her age group on Labor Day, she was in the same bracket as Beverly Long
and she finished second instead. Blake Henry did win his age group
in 20:16 and David Wishunt was the overall winner in 17:59 despite
missing a turn and running an extra quarter mile. Labor Day:
Beverly Long has been hounding me for a week now
about posting this. A group of AORTA runners invaded Montgomery on
Labor Day and brought home more than their fair share of gold.
John Nevel was 2nd place overall, Beverly Long and Molly Johnson both
won their age group. We didn't get Blake's place and Alvin took
2nd in his group as well as grabbing the Elwood Hinton award. He
said he thought that was for the oldest runner! Congrats to the
group. I have a photo from the race that I'll try to get posted
soon. Born to Run:
I know why you're reading this. You're looking for the
intellectual red meat that we provide here on an irregular basis.
I recently read a book called "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super
athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" which was
written by Christopher McDougall. The short report is a) great
book with b) great stories and c) interesting facts about runner
injuries. But the book centers around a race that took place in
Copper Canyon, Mexico between some of the worlds best ultra marathoners
and the local Indians. He gives a lot of good background to all
the characters which is great reading.
Trust me, buy the book and you'll love it! There is
a lot of info on the book on Amazon.com.
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 | Please put the caps back on drink sports drinks and water jugs before leaving the water stop. |
| Place liquids back in the coolers/ice. Sometimes the containers are just left sitting out (like on top of the electrical switch box at the corner of Moore's Mill and E. Univ.) and the liquid may not be cool by the time the next set of runners arrive. |
| If there's a lid on the cooler, close it. This will help keep the liquids cool. |
| Basically be courteous to the runners who are behind you. |
Jackpot:
AU donated 11 new water coolers to AORTA
recently and thanks to Bryan Schneider for arranging this. Some
will be given to race directors and the others will just be hoarded by
the club but that will be a big help to us.
Speaking of coolers, a lot of you use ice chests in the summer to keep
the water cold for the runners on Saturday's. Recently several
have been stolen during or right after the run. When someone goes
to pick them up they are just gone! I've had a couple of ice
chests stolen over the years so I've started buying the cheap Styrofoam
type that no one wants. If you are using an ice chest try hiding
it as best you can or even throw a large black trash bag over it to help
hide it.
I also need to make a correction. I have written here that the
young man who hit Ty Garner on his bike had been drinking. Since
that time I've been told that is not true, he wasn't drinking. I
just wanted to get the correct information out there.
Wednesday:
Several have asked me if anything was being done for
Ty Garner. Bob Kennis sent me this information on a benefit being
held for him this Saturday:
Back on August 8th a cyclist, Ty Garner, was struck by a car on
Shug Jordan Pkwy. The car hit him from behind at full speed. He was
airlifted to Columbus Regional Medical Center with severe head trauma.
Ty remains in ICU. Updates on Ty's condition are available at
www.caringbridge.org/visit/tygarner Friends have
organized a benefit to provide
assistance to the family. Jody Fuller, Opelika's own "Stuttering Comic",
who will be the entertainment for the event. It will be held at the Elks
Lodge, 1944 Opelika Road, Saturday, August 29, 6:00 till 9:00 pm, Free
Admission. Donations taken at the door.
Tuesday update:
Those of you who have been around for a while know that once school
begins I often warn the runners on Saturday morning to watch out for
drunk drivers. I've been eye-witness to 3 accidents on Saturday
mornings during a run or ride all by drunk drivers. They are like
vampires, once the sun starts to rise they scurry home to bed. We
all know about Ty Garner and how he was hit by a drunk driver and is
still in the hospital. Just this past Saturday one of our members
was headed to the run and about to turn from Magnolia onto College but
was caught by a red light. Once the light changed the driver ahead
of her didn't move so finally she went around him. When she
glanced over to see why he wasn't moving she saw his head was on the
steering wheel and he apparently passed out. She called 911 and we
suspect he sobered up in jail. All that to say you need to pay
attention and never take for granted that a driver sees you or is in
full control. And when it's dark outside wear your reflective
vest!!
Of course the big news within AORTA is the long awaited engagement of
Andy Taylor and Heather Lloyd. It will certainly be the social
event of the season. Alvin was not totally pleased because Andy
did not ask for his daughters hand in marriage but looking on the bright
side Alvin said "I'm not losing a daughter, I'm gaining a carpenter who
can do chores for me". The date is set for late September...
Just this once I'm going to post something about trail running.
It's AORTA's written policy to snub trail runners but I know a number of
you love it. The XTERRA Alabama Trail Running Series begins in September
and they will have 3 trail races. You can find all the information
you need on
www.dirtyspokes.com .
AORTA Matchmakers L.L.C.:
Since the club has been so successful at matchmaking
between members the past few years we have decided to branch out and
make that another profit-center within the AORTA family of companies.
This past weekend Mr. Andy Taylor and Ms. Heather Lloyd were engaged.
I'll get all the juicy details and let you know because I know Andy
would love to share that with us. We have been very successful at
this with our only failure so far being Peyton Bean. Alvin tried
to console Peyton recently with an old saying that goes "even a blind
hog finds an acorn every so often". Congratulations to Andy and
Heather!
Since yesterday I have added even more races to the calendar!
A final note, I'm going to be out of town on business for the rest of
this week but will see you all on Saturday morning.
Monday update: The
race calendar reflects some new races I added including the Forestry
Preserve 5K.
I know a lot of people are keeping up with Ty Garner but in the past
couple of days there have been no significant changes. I'm sure
that when his body is ready to wake up that it will. Often times
no news is good news!
The Lee Co. Sheriff's office is offering a free self defense class for
women called RAD - Rape Aggression Defense. The classes will be on
8/17, 8/19, 8/24, and 8/26 from 5:30 - 8:30 at Johnson's Galleries in
Opelika. Plan on attending all four nights. If interested,
contact:Jessica Dailey or Rebecca Tate at
lcsorad@yahoo.com or 319-0325.
July 1200 Mile Club Results
The most immediate problem is we need to change the rules for the 1200
Club because it has grown so much, it costs the club at least $1,000 per
year and I get 40-50 emails at the beginning of each month with your
mileage and then proceed to lose several of those. So the AORTA
Politburo has met and here are the new rules for the 2008 1200 Mile
Club:
1) Must be a member by Feb 28th. No
exceptions! Membership forms must be completely filled out including
email address.
2) Must turn in mileage no later than the 15th of the following month.
No exceptions. Let's face it, if you are tracking your mileage there is
no reason why you can't turn it in on time.
3) -- on the third day of the following month you will receive an email
with a link. Click on the link and you simply enter in your mileage
when prompted. Do not send your mileage to the website any longer.
4) -- Around the 13th of the month, people who have not responded will
receive a reminder email. Once again, you can click on the link and
enter your mileage for the month then hit submit.
5) To qualify for the 1200 Mile Club you MUST volunteer for a local
race. That doesn't mean help with registration and go run the
race. It means helping from start to finish, you can't race that
day at all. It's hard to get experienced people to volunteer and
this is going to help us out a lot.
Now, if you want to be in the 1200 Mile Club for this year you just need
to
send Karen an email
saying you want to join and you'll
be added to an automated database that she has set up. Then you will be
in the automated system. Later, a new spreadsheet will be sent to
me monthly that I'll post with everyone's mileage. Yes, it's
magical...
If you've been a regular member for a while then don't bother reading
this because you know this already. But, if you are new and have
been pondering maybe possibly to try running with AORTA this is for you.
Lately, I've had several inquiries (at least 5) about wanting to run
with us on Saturdays and they have a lot of questions about what we do
so here goes my explanation.
A) Yes, it may say the Saturday run is some impossible distance
for you but ignore that. About 25% of the people will run that
far, most will run an hour or maybe a bit more or less so don't be
intimidated by the mileage that gets posted. It's bogus man!
B) No, you don't have to be a member of AORTA to run with us.
But, at some point we would certainly hope that you would want to
support the group by becoming a member and forking over your $20.
Now, if you go a really long time we send one of our aggressive females
after you to collect. I have some names in mind but I won't
mention them right now.
C) What do we have to offer on Saturday? Click on the link
to the right that says "Saturday Plan" and it explains in a haphazard
way what we are doing. We have a planned route, a planned
distance, you can print out the map if you aren't familiar with Auburn
and most importantly we have water stops about every 3 miles!
4) "I'm too slow, I'll fall off the back". You might, but
you probably won't, we have runners of all abilities. We have a
lot of fast people and a lot of slow people and I can almost guarantee
you will find at least one person who is your speed.
E) "But I'm new to this and those guys have been doing marathons and
running for years". I can say with all confidence that everyone
understands how it is to be new and how hard it can be to get started
running or to try and move up to the next level. We've all been
there! I've seen so many runners who started running with us and
their max distance had been 3 miles over 45 minutes. A year later
they are much faster and have done a 10K or half marathon and pondering
a full marathon. Running with a group makes running much easier
and you'll find yourself being pulled along.
F) "You mean you run at 6:00 am on a Saturday?" I've heard
that a thousand times but once a person shows up they realize it's not
that hard to get out early. We meet that early for 2 reasons.
1) Do you know how hot it is, this helps to beat the heat a little. 2)
Many of the members have kids and activities so they get their long run
done early and can still get home before soccer, baseball, etc.
The hardest day will be that first Saturday! After that you'll
fall in, enjoy the people and the run and never look back... This
Saturday would be the perfect day to start!
Organized Runs
Monday - 5:15am - Meet at the
City Library parking lot (Thach & Dean Rd)
Wednesday - 5:15am - Meet at the parking lot for Amsterdam Cafe
Friday - 5:15am - This is the only run we do from Kroger and it's the
one in Auburn!
Saturday - 6:00am - We call it Kaz but we meet in front of Taylor's
Coffee & Mellow Mushroom. (Often there is an informal group that
runs at 5:00 am too, you'll just have to check with me to see if anyone
is running)
Sunday - 7:00am - In front of Taylor's Coffee on College Street
(I use the term "organized" very loosely)
Saturday's Plan
Race Results
Course Maps
Race Calendar
1200 Mile Club
Join AORTA
AORTA Race Services
November Birthdays
Andy Taylor 7th
Carol Keever 10th
Steve Speakman 12th
Elizabeth Knight 20th
Micah Knight 27th
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