Striders,
Summer is upon us (if you hadn’t noticed) and yet that doesn’t keep some of us from training in this weather. There are lots of Striders out there who are pounding the pavement in preparation of a fall marathon and it makes a Prez feel good to see such dedication. Please drop me a note to let me know what event you’re preparing for so that we can share that information with other Striders who may be training for the same event.
June kicked off with our annual Strider Picnic in Bear Creek Park and this year, the A-Team (Angela and Angellar) organized train rides for the kiddos (young and old). Pony and Faith spearheaded Pony’s Play Land once again and everyone had a great time. We had plenty of good grub and refreshments on hand to help counter the high temps we’ve been dealing with. Thank you Angela, Angellar, and all the other volunteers for helping out at this event.
We also held another Shopping Extravaganza at Luke’s Locker inside the loop where members were able to take advantage of receiving 20% of all merchandise in the store except for Garmin products. As usual, Luke’s Locker provided plenty of personnel as well as refreshments. While the discount is worth the trip, so is the company so if you haven’t made it out to one of these events, I hope you’ll check it out next quarter.
The Run with the Prez Pub Run also took place in June and this time BOB Schamus led us through the Rice University area. We met at Hans' Bierhaus in the village and then went for a 4 mile run to Valhalla on the Rice University campus which is an experience in itself. We were greeted with $1 St. Arnold’s Lawnmower beers…how can you go wrong with that! It was a perfect venue for us, so much that we opted to forgo the second venue on the schedule in order to remain onsite. We then took off back to Hans' Bierhausas to finish up the evening. Thanks to everyone that came out that night and a special thanks to BOB for organizing the event.
Our SMART half and full marathon program will be starting soon so it’s time for you to start building your base miles so that depending whether you plan to run the half or full marathoners, you can comfortably run 15-20 miles respectively each week. We are also looking for runners willing to serve as back-up coaches at either location on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays so drop me a note if you’re interested. I can say from experience that it’s very rewarding to help runners achieve their running goals.
Most of you already have heard that Helen Grant will be returning to her homeland in the UK so Victor Aguirre has organized a trail run in her honor coming up on Saturday, July 17 at 4:00 pm at Memorial Park. While the Striders plan to sponsor some of this event, we are also going to hold our own run for Helen which will be announced soon. Regardless, I plan on attending both events and I hope you do too.
Next up on the schedule is our second Novelty Run for this year which will entail a Mystery Treasure Hunt led by Matt Wright. Those of you that have attended any of his events know that it’s always a good time so be sure and mark your calendars for Sunday, July 25 at the Rugby Fields in Memorial Park for a 10:00 a.m. start. Be ready to laugh a lot and share in good company, I hope to see you there.
The third quarterly meeting which focuses on the Houston Half Marathon is around the corner and it looks as though we may need to push the meeting out to August 23 so stay tuned for more information. Race directors Rodney and Amanda Thorin will be hosting this meeting to provide you with an update on our race’s progress and to share with you different opportunities available to help out with THE MOST IMPORTANT event of year. It’s thanks to this race that we are able to sponsor all of the events that we do each month so I hope that you can all join us for this important meeting.
Lastly, just a reminder to visit the different communication sites we offer. They can be found at the following links:
· The Houston Strider Photo Album can be found at http://houstonstriders.shutterfly.com/.
· The Houston Strider Facebook Page at group page.
· And the Houston Strider Fan Page at fan page.
That’s all for this month,
Your prez,
Miriam