Sam and Dave

We are down the stretch for this current journey with Team In Training. As of today, there are 15 days to go before the Team I am coaching lines up to run 13.1 miles in the Country Music Half Marathon. Believe it or not–there are a few teammates, who will be doing that for the very first time–not just a half marathon but the first race…period!!

No 5k’s, 10k’s, ‘Fun Run’ 1-milers, 1k Walks with their puppy-dogs….nope… nada!

I must say that while I didn’t sign up for it, I have even enjoyed taking several of them over to Fleet Feet to get fitted for running shoes, by my friend Drew– and I will always smile when I think back on the day that I was saying hi to him, and then the expression on his face when he looked up, only to see Angela, who I had sent to see Drew originally weeks before, and was now returning her running shoes …for the 4th time! “Oh no.” was all he said, okay he might have uttered a few other things, but he was sweet as can be in the 2hrs he spent with her– as she picked out pair number five. I blew out before the first hour was up. I said it was fun, but even good fun can become well, hell, after shopping with a woman for more than an hour. I’m happy to say that Ang did fine with those shoes. And since she’s missed over half the Saturday GROUP TRAINING SESSIONS (GTS’), they’re no doubt as good as new.

Just kidding Angela!

But getting back to this being the first race for some–I also have some veterans and a wide range of paces. My Wilco Team is bad ass in all ways. Sarah, now 16 weeks pregnant, if I’m adding correctly, ran a 12 miler in just over 2 hrs last week and that’s slow for her. In addition, as we speak, Sarah is also the top fundraiser in Tennessee for TNT as she closes in on $8,000-  On days when I’m not feeling well, I think of Sarah and sometimes, depending on the day, I can reach down and pull some strength  that I didn’t think I had that day.

Team In Training runners have the ability to inspire each other because we are kind of like minded in many ways.

So the paces run from really fast- Pat, Bethany A (who has gone from 10 min miles when the season started to 8′s now and is going to crush this race)–then the other fast ones are Bethany L, our exchange student Florian, Christopher, Joe, Morgan, Amanda, Angela and Veronica.

That’s all I’ll mention for now- but we also have a good size mid pack. And in running it’s just a fact, that people will end up in the back. Many times it’s me, especially when I don’t feel well. And by the way, what’s the point of surviving stage 4 cancer if you can’t use it as an excuse some days!

I don’t accept running in the back with much grace-I most likely won’t say anything out loud to you, but if I think I should beat you and you come in ahead of me- in my head I’m normally thinking something like ‘that’s bullshit‘ or ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’ Sorry, just keepin’ it real!

I’m happy to say that the rest of my Team has more grace than I do.

Take David- David’s a ‘walker’ to ‘walk/runner,’ and we have a lot of walkers and a great TNT Walking Team, coached by the awesome Coach Shellie. However on ourWilliamson County Team, we don’t have a walking Team. So David is on his own a lot- and despite the fact that everyone runs by him twice normally–once on the way out and again on the way in- he is always smiling and upbeat. I looked at him last week and noticed he was losing a good amount of weight- he is doing a fantastic job in both training and fundraising and in turn, he has inspired us. And he looks great! What a truly admirable performance. I can’t wait to see him at the finish line on April 28th.

So, you never know that you’re affecting and moving people, simply by walking through a place where God wants you- in David’s case the walking is literal–however, he’s also completing a journey that I’m not sure he was confident that he would finish when we started this thing. Awesome work my friend!

Well….Ted and I have a new teammate for the New York City Marathon and an element of that journey that I’m not so confident about yet–raising $100,000 for LLS and to help cure cancer. Our new teammate will improve our visual branding too- but that wouldn’t take a lot.

Our new Teammate is Sammi Schmittou and don’t worry about pronouncing that last name–I don’t even try.

Sammi’s the girl that can run 100 mile ‘ultra marathons’ and as long as she raises some money doing it, I’ll be cheering my sister on. Seriously, Samantha or Sammi or Samuel or any of the other names I call her– is someone we all look up too. When I was running the Dublin Marathon last October, I was having a bad day- it got rainy and cold and I was hurting–plus they ran out of water at the water stops - Sammi, a coach on that trip, was running into stores to buy us water, plus Skittles, and peanuts and everything else I scarfed down to keep me moving on that 26.2 mile trip.

She could screw up her appointment book 100 more times (hey I didn’t say the girl was perfect), and after Dublin I could never be upset. She saved me that day but she also saved many other runners out on that course. She must have easily run 50 miles that race and she wasn’t even participating! And an hour after the race she was downing beers with the rest of us.

So welcome Sammi!

Now grab Ted and start raising some money for Gods sake! We can’t exactly cure cancer with 3% of our goal.

Speaking of that, are you feeling generous today- how about a donation right now! We only have to need 1,000 people give 100 dollars each! And as of today we only need 970 more!! We’re rockin’!!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!

And of course…thanks!

Jim