Yankee Runners are a unique and special group of people.  I cannot tell you the numbers of times you have made me proud just to be associated with you.  You made me proud the times you won races or age awards.  You made me proud each time you ran the best you could no matter the pace.  Each year our racing teams seem to rise to new heights and our team trophies are adding up. How you make me proudest has nothing to do with running.  Whether it is raising money for charity as many of you do, or like our friend Larry who not only works with handicap kids but drives cancer patients to their Chemo treatments you guys make me proud.

I am never more proud to be one of you then each week when I arrive at Hope’s Children Hospital and see the Yankee Runners who have mentored some truly heroic cancer survivors. Each week for the last couple months some of your friends accompanied these kids as they prepared for the 2nd annual Running for Hope 5k to be run on June 7 in Oak Lawn. When you look at the picture I hope you can see Patti Oliosi, Jen Ondrejka, Sue Wiora, Lisa Werner Chuck Chung, and Meg Keating.  Missing from the picture are Lisa Gordon and Janie Vulich.  The actions of these mentors and the other mentors go beyond running.  Their actions go to the way they choose to live.  The way Yankee Runners conduct their lives is more important then the times they post at races.  To step up and help these kids, that have been through some much speaks volumes about your character. YOU make me PROUD. 

I want to tell you how I feel about these kids and the easiest way for me to do that is to share with you what I shared with them last week.  Below is what I meant to say, I never know what I really say because I get nervous speaking in front of people but it was close to this.

“In the past 10 years I have help train over 1500 runners to finish a marathon.  I have seen our runners finish marathons all across the country and beyond.  They ran in Chicago, New York, Greenbay, Philly, Tallahassee, London, Berlin, Dublin, and Rome.  I have paced runners who qualified for and competed in the Boston Marathon.  I have seen a lot of runners.

Each year I tell the runners new to our group what it will take to battle and defeat the enemy. In our battle the enemy is the miles.  The human body is not designed to run 26.2 miles.  I tell them to defeat the enemy they must have a fire burning inside their belly, they must have a voice shouting inside their head that pushes them further and further.  I tell them about the dedication, and commitment it will take.  Then I step back and over the next 18 weeks I watch and see who has the fire, the dedication and the courage to face and defeat our enemy.  I also watch and see who does not have what it takes. In all my years, the runner with the most dedication, with the hottest fire and the voice shouting the loudest does not have the courage of any of you.  I take nothing away from my runners I am passionate about marathoning. And I am passionate about the runners I run with, I appreciate the effort it takes to face our enemy and I know what it takes to defeat him.  But we choose our enemy.  Each year we go into our battle willingly.  If we succeed we have a great feeling of accomplishment. If we fail our pride is hurt and we start to plan for our next battle.

You did not choose your enemy.  You did not line up and volunteer to go into your battle.  Your battle was thrust upon you. By being here today you proved you had a fire burning inside, you had a voice in your head that would not let you quit.  You showed more courage then any runner I have ever known.  Your courage has humbled me.  All the enemies in all the marathons I have run combined cannot equal the enemy you have defeated. 

I am not worthy to be on your team, I am just a guy who runs.  You are truly Hope’s Angels.  I am proud to be here with you and look forward to racing with you on June 7.”

They are a wonderful group of kids and the nurses that are in charge of the program Lisa Boland and Linda Rivard are as dedicated to their patients as the most successful marathon runners are to their training.

Don’t forget packet pickup on Wednesday and the Mizuno trailer on Friday.  Both take place at Running for Kicks. And of course speed work also on Wednesday.

What do Yankee Runners do the last week before marathon training starts?  It appears to me, many of them race!!!!  Not only do they race, they take home some trophies.  On Saturday Ricster led some of us in Mel’s Pink Ribbon race in Palos.  Not only did he lead some of us, he led everybody and WON the race.  We had many age awards.  Kathy Ceja, Sue Ficek, Sue Wiora, and Maureen Mikulski won age awards on the female side.  Joe Talty, Dan Barr and Ronn Ross did the same on the male side. 

Of course this was only Saturday we still had Hope’s 5k on Sunday.  Shannon Javaras led us on Sunday and went on to defend her crown, winning the female race for the second year.  The competition was a little tougher this year so Shannon had to pick it up a notch. Following Shannon with age awards on the female side were Joni Gliwa and Maureen Mikulski, can that be, didn’t Maureen win yesterday as well?  On the male side winning age awards were another double winner Ricster, Jerry Raumen, Mike Yuhasz, and Larry Mirous.  The biggest winners on Sunday were the cancer survivors some of us mentored, as many of them finished their first 5k. You think we’re done NOT YET we still have the Lincoln Park Zoo Run and Run for Cops 6 mile race.  I have no results from the Lincoln Park Zoo run but in the Run for Cops 6 mile race Joe Haberkorn won 1st overall Master runner.  Jen Strickland and Spero picked up age awards.  Good job to everybody who had the courage to lace up the shoes and put on a bib. 

Though our first training run together is not until Saturday the training starts Monday.  We have most things in place.  Water stops are all assigned, we have group leaders for every pace EXCEPT run/walk.  If you know anybody who would be willing to help with this pace let me know.  Maybe somebody would be willing to do it for one or two weeks to buy me some time to see if we can come up with a permanent solution. If you volunteer for just one week I swear I will not ask you to do it more then that.

Please watch the web site each week; you never know when we will add something.  We have tentative dates for set for our astronaut egg breakfast, Bike with Spero, and run to the finish before the start.  We may add a social gathering around a bon fire later in the year.

The next race some of us may group up for is “Short run on a long day”.  The race will be held on Thursday June 18 starting at 7:00pm in Frankfort.  For more information you can call 815-469-9400 or check the their web site www.frankfortparks.org.

We normally group up for a ½ marathon during our training.  Two that have been mentioned are the Oak Brook ½ on Labor Day and the Chicago ½ (formerly Banco Popular) on September 13.  One issue with the Chicago ½ is the date conflicts with “Bike with Spero”.  If you have any other thoughts or ideas please let us know. 

One last thing, if you or if you know anybody who is locked out of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and would like to take part in this event, it has been brought to my attention that Alzheimer’s charity has bibs available until the end of June.  They will accept a donation of  $265.00 plus the cost of your registration. .  If you go to their website you will see a figure of $900.00 but if you mention the right person (not me) you can get in for $265.00. 
If you are interested let me know.  I will get you more information.

I can’t help but be excited each year at this time.  The grass is green the flowers are blooming and training has started.  I looked out from the picnic table and saw many faces.  Some were familiar and some we not, and all I could think was how lucky I am.  Once again I was taking part in what will certainly be an incredible journey.  There are so many new friends to make and so many miles to run.  To a social runner like myself it can’t get any better.

You would think that as many years as I have been doing this I would get it right.  One of these years I will.  As I was running my 10 miles this morning (Sunday) I realized I overwhelmed you with activities and dates.  What I should have done was to make sure you all know about our website. I did mention it and hopefully many of our new members will see this, if not I will certainly emphasize it next week. 

Next week I will talk about “Runner of the Week” and the group pictures.  I hope to get enough input from our runners our job is hard to pick just one.  In all my years that has never been the case.  Then I will talk about what you can expect from the next 17 weeks.  Over the next couple weeks I will talk about the highs and lows you will encounter.

Remember we will be running by 7:00am if you want to hear any pearls of wisdom get there by 6:50am. 

The Enemy does not care why you didn’t, just that you didn’t.  I’ll do ALL my runs this week.  I refuse to get off to a slow start.

If you do not have your training booklet and shoe tag let me know.

Upcoming races:
Thursday June 18, 2009, Short run on a long day 5K in Frankfort
Wednesday July 1, 2009 Oak Forest 5k Liberty run/walk.  I have race applications for this race.  I thought some of you might replace speed work that week wit this race. 

For information about any of these races you can contact me. 708-429-9598 up until 10:00pm or e-mail me gokarts@juno.com

I have so much to say and so little space.  I like the idea of using the web for most announcements.  I must start by telling you a few of us received parking tickets on Saturday. This is the first time in all my years of running there this has happened.  I guess Todd must have few more relatives he’s trying to get on the County payroll.  Because I get there early I did not get one myself but I heard they are $25.00 if you mail it in.  I feel sorry for those who got them, for the rest of you be warned, benefit from somebody else’s misfortune and don’t park illegally.  There is plenty of parking at the golf course less then 1/3 mile from our parking lot.   Not the end of the world for a marathoner to warm up and cool down with a 1/3-mile walk.

Using this website will be new to most all of you so in this case experienced and beginners will learn together.  I REALLY do want your input on runner of the week and I want whatever group you wish to be in a picture with.  You don’t have to qualify for Boston or beat the wicked witch of the north to be runner of the week. Anybody you think is worthy to be runner of the week we will consider.  Believe me in past years VERY FEW runners whose names were sent to us were not used. It is like the race I ran and won first place in my age group because I was the only one in my age group. The group picture is new this year.  After you have your picture taken and posted I hope you might go to our Google site and post your thoughts about your group.  I further hope other runners might reply with some questions or comments.   My phone number and e-mail are in your training booklet so I am easy to get in touch with.  This reminds me if you do not have a training booklet or SHOE TAG let me know.   I need you wear those shoe tags.  I have to get an idea who supports our program and who just wants the benefits.  If you paid to support the program I want to know.  The only way I can do that is seeing your shoe tag.

I’m sure most of you notice the massage therapist set up to help you when you finished your run.  They are from Vision of Touch one of our web site sponsors and they have been with us for a few years.  The work they do is complimentary but tips are accepted. I noticed they were busier when the longer distance runners got back. That is because the runners going the longer distances are more experienced and they know massage therapy is beneficial to finishing a marathon.  I would suggest you have a spare towel with you if you want to take advantage of this opportunity. 

In past years many of us have grouped up and ran in Tinley Park’s 4th of July race.  This year the race falls on a Saturday.  I love that race but this year training will take precedent.  To those of you who choose to race it good luck.  If you train that day but want to race, there is a local 5k in Oak Forest on Wednesday July 1.  With our speed work on Wednesdays this might be a good trade off.  I will have applications next week at speed and next Saturday.

There was a local 5k race in Frankfort last Thursday and some of our runners took part. Some of them took home some hardware.  Sarah won the Female race.  Joe Talty, Mark Campbell, Dan Barr, Megan Sullivan won age awards.  Barb Andricopulos who is new to our group also won an age award.  Good job Barb.  I know these winners because I was present at the race.  If you race in races that I’m not at it and don’t want me to miss you send me your results.  I must admit in a past update I sent race results and missed our very own Trish Schmidt.  She won age awards in the Soldier Field 10, the Pink Ribbon race and Race for the Cops.  Sorry about that Trish.  My only question is how big is your trophy case?

Start looking at our coming events.  Our Astronaut egg breakfast is our first event.  We use it as a get to know you and a fundraiser to supplement the generous gift Mel from Running for Kicks donated to us.  If details are not posted they will be soon.

Happy Fathers day to all you Dads, I hope you enjoyed the day. 

Don’t you love cut back weeks?  I love cut back weeks.  Truth be told the only we get to cut back is our Saturday long run.  But it is nice to give our bodies a chance to heal up a little.  That is the purpose of cut back weeks.  They are not meant to see if we can move up a pace group.  Because I wanted to be first one back on Saturday I ran only 5 miles.  I did the big eight mile loop out at Swallow Cliff this morning (Sunday); what a pleasant run.  I took it easy cleared my head of some problems and just ran.  Reality will set in next week when I will join the nine-minute pace group and do 13 miles on Saturday.  Many of you will be gone before I get back but remember I am only a phone call or e-mail away.  Whatever I can do to help you in anyway let me know. 

Next week Saturday is the 4th of July.  I know many of you will be racing or off to far away places for the long weekend.  If you are racing, good luck.  Remember the Tinley Park race has 10-year age groups.  Run like whoever is in front of you is in your age group.  I expect to hear about the result in time to have them in the update next Sunday.  If you are just going away remember the “enemy” does not care why you missed your workouts.  You will get no sympathy because it was a holiday.

Next Saturday will be my 4th of July talk so the continuation of last week’s talk will have to wait until July 11.  It will be about a conversation I had with a new runner a couple years ago. 

Don’t forget our astronaut eggs breakfast on July 18. Attendance is not required but expected.  Bring a dry shirt to put on after your run.  This will help your name tag stay on and I will get a chance to start putting names to your lovely faces.  We need to have a five-dollar fee to help with cost.

Be careful out there and I will see many of you Saturday and all of you the following Saturday.