WEEK 5 Summer Miles (PRD)

WEEK 5 Summer Miles (PRD)

Blessed to be A RUNNER!!!

FiRsT oF aLl hApPy FaThErS dAy! To AlL daDs AnD tO aLl FaThErS!! Below is a video Honoring FATHERS!!

I have been reminiscing on PAST memories. For 16 Summers I worked in ALASKA. 16 to 18 hour DAYS, knee deep in processing SALMON. Every year workers would TRAVEL to Alaska from ALL over the world. From, Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Columbia, all over North and South America. 

With all the Craziness going on in the world TODAY, it got me thinking. Having workers come to Alaska from ALL over the world to work. We had to UNDERSTAND how we each processed information, communicated. and what each of us had experienced in our lives, and respect each others' culture etc.

By so doing, we were able to take a LARGE number of people that had little to no knowledge of each other and we were able to BLEND together, work together, laugh together, discuss differences together, and when the season ended we were able to cry together knowing that saying "Goodbye" to a friend is a hard thing to do, especially knowing that you might not EVER see each other again. (Some would come back a few years in a row, while others in was a one time deal)

I have forged some long lasting friendships and memories over those 16 years. Stories and experiences that I will NEVER forget and many that NO ONE will EVER believe, but I know that they happened and that they were REAL.       

Coaching has had a similar IMPACT on my life. Each and every year we have NEW runners come out and JOIN the team, We also have returning runners, and occasionally we have a runner that will run only one year. 

Regardless of how long a runner runs on the team, I hope that we ALL will help in making the experience for ALL runners something that they will fondly look back and reminisce, smiling thinking about stories and experiences they had while being a part of THIS team. 

My hope is that we continue to work HARD, include ALL that RUN, and create some LASTING memories, friendships, and moments that will FOREVER keep us smiling in our hearts and minds.

Every MEMBER of this team MATTERS and is VITAL and IMPORTANT to our success as a team and as an Individual. 

May we find JOY in the JOURNEY. 

Against ALL the ODDS that we are facing dealing with and ALL that is going on, let's KEEP putting in the HARD work. NEVER GIVE UP!! YOU CAN DO THIS!!!! Fight, Dig in, Go to WORK! 

There is STRENTH in NUMBERS!!

I'm PROUD and HONORED to be a PART of the SPARTAN XC TEAM!! KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!