A New Training Season Begins

I am excited about starting a new marathon and half marathon training session. We had tremendous results in the Route 66 Marathon in November, and I am hoping we can have similar results in the spring marathons.

Some highlights of the Route 66 Marathon results:

• Will McIntosh ran his first marathon in 3:37:35.
• Andy Karlin set a PR of 3:37:44.
• Sally Eagleton set a PR of 3:38:27, qualified for Boston, and finished third in her age group.
• Stormy Phillips, after running a 100 mile race the previous week, ran his first marathon in 3:39:56.
• Rachel Mitchell finished in 3:54:25. I think that may be a new PR.
• Jeff Newsome ran his first marathon in 3:54:40.
• Jillian Fuqua finished her first marathon in 3:56:02
• Harold Hicks finished in 3:57:11. I think that was his first marathon.

Our group also had good results in the half marathon. I think our top finisher was Eric Soutee with a 1:40:14, followed by Steve Adams in 1:45:20. Steve Powell and Beth Eagleton also had good runs in the half marathon, even though they fell a bit short of their goal times. One of the things I would like to see this season is for Beth to step up to the marathon and qualify for Boston so she can run with her daughter, Sally. By the way, Sally will not be running with us over the winter because she will be working as a ski instructor in Taos, New Mexico.

I finished the marathon in 4:35:03, which is a personal worst, and I felt horrible most of the way. But my excuse is that I ran 66 miles the previous weekend pacing Kathy and Stormy for the last part of their hundred mile race. Here is a picture of me and Kathy at the finish of the Mother Road 100. Kathy is pretty exhausted at this point and ready to lie down for a long nap.

Anyway, despite my poor time and how poorly I felt during the marathon, I was pretty excited about our group's results. I think we definitely earned the title RWT Speedwagon. By the way, speaking of speed, Andy just ran a 20 minute flat in the Jingle Bell 5k. Woohoo!

I've been thinking about a new name for our group. One of the names I was thinking of was RunnersWorld Overdrive, with perhaps a theme song of “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” I even had started on a logo, and below is a preliminary version.

However, Andy requested that we go back to our old name of Ethiopian Elites, so that is who we will be this time around.

Our first official training session will be Saturday, December 18 at Veterans Park (21st and Boulder). We will be meeting at 7:45, with a goal to be actually running by 8:00.

Links to the marathon and half marathon schedules and routes are located in the sidebar to the right. If you have not yet signed up, it is not too late. Print an entry form from this link, fill it out and take it to RunnersWorld Tulsa at 43rd and Peoria.

By the way, the second Saturday of the schedule happens to fall on Christmas day. We will not have a group run on that day, but on Sunday the 26th there will be a group run starting at RunnersWorld. I will not be at that run because I have responsibilities at church.

Also, on January 1st, there will not be an official group run. The official run will be on Sunday, January 2. Again I will have to miss the Sunday run because I will be at church. However, I will be running on January 1st. Let me know if you want to run with me.