Track Night! Wednesday, July 3

Once again, we find "scattered thunderstorms" in the forecast.  But alas, if this unpredictable weather remains free from electrical disturbances, track night will commence this evening at 6:15. For our new runners, we enter week 6 of the C25K program. After the warmup, we will jog for 10 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, then finish with 10 more minutes of jogging. It's hard to believe that the Ebensburg Homecoming 5k is right around the corner, but here we are!

Kevin wins AND does the "hand-on-hip" EARC pose

We probably won't have many in the advanced runners group this evening, since the July 4th Angie Gioiosa Memorial Race is tomorrow. Fellow EARCites Mike Bradley and Ryan Westrick have already blogged about this race. I can only echo that this is a great event. In fact, the 15k was my first road race, waaaay back in 1990. I had just started running that spring, and decided that I would give cross country a try in the fall. My running that summer was sporadic, and I hadn't run over 6 miles. But for whatever reason, I thought that I could muscle through 9.3. Ah the unformed mind of a sixteen-year-old. I recall very little from the race. If I dig deeply, though, I can see a blur of heat, hills, and fatigue. I managed to cross the finish line, and fortunately I have no record of a time. But I do know that I've been hooked on distance running ever since.

Last year would have been my 5th time running the 15k, and it was a memorable one. My actual race wasn't anything to write home about. But the presence of EARC runners was quite the sight--yellow shirts everywhere. So if you're coming out to Altoona tomorrow, let's make sure to get a group picture. It is my hope that this picture will get larger every year.

Only Sandy got the memo about the EARC pose.