Where do I start after such a long hiatus?????

After trying week after week to log on to my blog, it has been impossible until a few minutes ago to do this. So much has happened and so many experiences have occurred since my last blog, that I find it difficult to summarize the adventures in a single blog. For my loyal friends who have missed my communications here, I thank you for your persistence in urging me to get into the site. Thank you, Barbara for the link.

I start off recounting the unfortunate trials of training, those associated with injury. As my friends fell to injuries in these last months , it made me think of the importance of training and not over training to avoid this. At the least amount of discomfort I stop, and wait for it to pass. My friends are healing and God willing will be training and racing with the group in the near future.

My work as an assistant coach at Friends in Training, has been challenging as well as frustrating at times. Sometimes I think that maybe it was just better to pay the membership fee and not have to deal with the bureaucratic stuff that comes with the role. But then when I seem to help someone finish a training session or walk with a person having a hard time, it seems to be worth it.

I still go out and train at least three times a week with Nancy, Rita, now Melanie and Cathy. Each day we do a little over 5 miles and what makes it interesting is not only the company of these wonderful ladies but the people we meet in the early hours of the morning. There is bus guy( who we now know to be called Kevin), we see him every day and say hi. Just before 4th of July we didn't see him and wondered where he was. Well we are headed back and the bus pulls up to us in the middle of A1A, the door opens and Kevin is there to wish us a good holiday ....that made all of our day. There is the kernel and his boot camp rookie, SM ( Nancy's name because the guy has a perfect body), crew cut guy, #8 or USA guy, and the others we see but not on a regular basis. See these people who walk into our lives if just for a moment keep us going each day, and I know that somehow our simple hello touches them too.

The FIT group is growing too. And now as we start the winter season I hope to have more people that will share our time during training. Nancy puts up with my stupid chatter, Marilyn has new running skirts and we got to see Marilyn over the inter coastal last week. I miss Barbara in our sessions and I am glad Dennis is back into training.

I am sorry that I just seem to ramble on but it is over two months of information here. To end I would like to mention that we did the first annual St Gregory's Bible Camp 5K this morning and it was not only fun but a success. Babette, a wonderful women who crossed paths with me from FIT died last month and we will honor her with a 5K next month. During the last two months I have walked over 240 miles, unfortunately I have not lost that much weight, still at about 10 pounds from when I started. I will continue to write, and I will continue to train. Continue to strive for your best and enjoy the journey.