Why?

People often ask, "why do you coach?" or "why do you pace?" I am very fortunate to have a wonderful group of women that I have been coaching for the past two years, and have made the decision to work on my own with two other coaches to train this group in the way I think can be best done; more on that to come. I have also had the great fortune over the past two years to be on the 3:50 Pace Team at the marathon...there is NO better way to run a hometown marathon!! It is a sacrifice of time and effort, BUT to get these emails...the question should be, "why don't you?" Here is a sampling of the joy I got over the past week:

I wanted to thank you for all your help and guidance through the whole training process. This really turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done and I have really found something that I love doing.

I am so glad that I had both of you that believed in me even when I may have doubted myself. I appreciate all the gut checks you gave me when I was training more than I should have limiting my cross training to make sure I would get in all the miles and the extra calories. The things that I will not forget are: The track and hill workouts that I was consistently be told that I can do better and faster, as well as long run days hoping not to get lost or seeing Meredith at the top of a hill telling us we are almost there. I achieved two huge goals this year and I could not have done it without either one of you. The most surprising goal was the life style change for myself and my family, which had a great impact to my overall success. I am now even considering myself an athlete again and now trying to determine my next goals. I cannot thank both of you enough for pushing me to be better and finding that thing inside of me that wants to be better.

I wanted to drop a quick note to say howAWESOME Bob and Merideth (3:50 pacers) were at the AT&Tmarathon this past weekend. It was my first marathon, and Iwent in with 4:00 as my goal and 3:50 as my stretch. Iended up hitting 3:49, and I'm sure that I wouldn't havedone it without the encouragement, advice, and motivationalspeaking :-) of the pacers during the race. You reallyadded to my first marathon experience, and I wanted to givea quick note to say THANK YOU!!!

The ATT Astin was my first marathon and I joined the 3:50 pace group lead by a very cheerful and bubbly woman and a tall man by the name of Bob (i think).Her name was Meredith and through web searches I think her last name was Terranova. She is an Ultra runner - I never knew there was such a thing.Anyway she was absolutely terrific and kept the (eventual) small group going hard all the way. In the last few tenths of a mile she said "go!" and I never saw her again to thank her for her help.Does anyone know her and if so please pass my heart felt thanks to her for her support, encouragement, jokes, spirit - all without which I could have never completed. The course was harder than I was lead to beleive.

I emailed Sophie Saturday morning, or maybe even Friday night, in a moment of panic...my group dynamic was not ending on the positive note I was hoping for and the thought of being a positive beacon for runners for 26.2 miles felt daunting. I didn't know if I could put it all together. Then, Sunday morning we were blessed with the most beautiful of days and I was given the gift of the greatest group of runners. The crowd support was lifting, and I felt it all come into place. It turned into the incredible day I always hope for!

Best personal moment, well there were two 1) mile 22.5 friends had set up an ultra aid station and I ran ahead of my group to stop for hugs and a coke (Paul grabbed a beer when he came by leading the 3-hour group), and 2) toward the end of the race I had a small group who had stuck with me ALL morning. I told them that we would ease off just a bit in the last mile because there was one last climb. I told them that when we got to the climb their only job was to stick to me like glue and I would pull them up. When we got to the top, I slowed for a second and told them to GO, and sent them downhill to the finish...I then wrangled in the stragglers who were willing to let me wrangle them in to the sub-3:50 finish!

Sunday afternoon I was given an incredible reminder. One of my friends told me to be transparent, and all would work out on my other situation. I was and had a wonderful conversation and closure with no bad thoughts or feelings!

mer

What a week of great gifts, reminders, and unbelievable memories!!