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Weekly Blog for September 5, 2006

Club Members and Guests:

Summer seems to have ended, and it even felt cool out there on the trails on Monday afternoon. We also had perfect running weather for SLR on Saturday, despite the Ernesto threat. Read below for details on our active September ahead.

1. Track Workouts: Wednesday workouts will be the TRACK on September 6 and September 27, and on the TRAIL on September 13 and 20. On the TRACK weeks, we will use our regular start time of 7:15. On the TRAIL weeks, we will leave for the trail at 6:45 sharp, in order to get the workout in before dark.

I am also going to offer the option of TUESDAY night workouts on the 12th and 19th -- the track is free both nights, except for band practice. We can discuss this at the track tomorrow night, the 6th. Please let me know then, or by e-mail, if you would be interested in this alternative.

2. Board Meeting: The regular bi-monthly meeting of the Board of Directors will take place on Monday, September 11, at 7:00 pm at the Silver Diner in Clarendon. An agenda will be sent by Club e-mail, and posted on the website, by Monday morning (hopefully sooner). If you have an item you would like the Board to discuss, please submit to me by e-mail. If you would like to attend, and are not already a regular attendee, please also let me know by e-mail so that we can get an accurate head count for the restaurant.

3. 20-Miler (September 24): Volunteers are still needed both for this event, and for the packet pick-up at Gotta Run on September 23rd. You may e-mail me, or volunteer coordinator Delabian Thurston at thurret@aol.com

4. Greenbelt 15K: Thanks to race director Ben Rchter, Greenbelt running maven Joe Broderick, and the many volunteers for making this Sunday night event a rousing success. Bad weather held off, and we were treated to some fine performances. Thanks again!

5. Saturday Long Run: Not so long this week, but a challenging 14 Miles on the classic Cathedral + Clintons route. Remember, there is always the option of a shorter, 6-9 mile run for those not up to the long loop.

6. 10-Mile Training Program: Thanks to more favorable weather, our second installment of this training program is getting in a few more miles than last summer's group. The group met recently for a happy hour get-together hosted by "sub-coach" Rachel Bonisteel. Thanks to Rachel -- we had a great time, and thanks for Kristin Blanchat for her continued leadership.

7. September 11 Memorial Run -- Tidal Basin: A commemorative 3K will be run at noon on September 11, along the lines of our informal monthly races on the third Wendesday. (This will not replace the regularly-scheduled September race).

8. RRCA Newsletter: Click here to read the latest on-line edition of Footnotes, the official magazine of the Road Runners Club of America. http://www.rrca.org/publicat/footnotes0906.pdf,

Some Anniversary Thoughts: Maybe it is the 80th birthday of New Jersey Track peritus Ed Grant, Sr., or his son's approaching 50th, but I am especially in the mind to consider anniversaries this fall. Obviously, the news focuses on the tragedy of Katrina, and the attacks upon our nation on September 11, 2001. A happier, if less noticed, September date is the 50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's return to prominence at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival (a CD everybody should listen to at least once in their lives).

We recently celebrated our 45th anniversary as a Club. Next March, the Road Runners Club of America will celebrate its 50th anniversary at its convention in Chicago. I think of that date as a watershed. It is certainly the best date one can point to for the start of the running boom. That boom took a long time to get going -- even in the early 1970s, we were considered something of a freak show as we put in our mileage. But the RRCA provided a structure, a schedule of races, and, most importantly, leadership to meet the skyrocketing demand which hit our sport later in the 70s, and which has not stopped. The DCRRC was among the pioneer clubs in the RRCA, and we are second to no Club in providing a quality balance of training and racing opportunities.

But something else has happened since the late 50s that is cause for less celebration, and that is the state of the sport -- meaning track & field, out of which road running comes, and to which it is inextricably tied. The recent revelations regarding Marion Jones illustrate the point. No one was shocked or surprised. Rather, the collective reaction was: "finally." Add to this the case of Justin Gatlin, others too numerous to mention, and the catalogue of fraudulent marks now listed as "world records" on the women's side of the ledger, and we need look no further for why our sport, which once commanded a great deal of media and public attention, is viewed with cynicism and worse.

For those who love this sport, nothing will top it. Tiger Woods will compel and inspire us, the baseball pennant races and college football will excite our hometown and alumni fevers, and perhaps even the Redskins will give us something real to cheer about. But running and its related endeavors, we know, are the purest of sports, because they test the purest of human capacities for strength, speed, and endurance.

Each time we tie up our laces, each time we volunteer to support a race, each time we coach or help encourage a fellow runner to meet his/her goals, we are saying NO to those who have robbed our sport of its special place and its sense of fair play. Maybe our own "pebble in the pond" will send out just a small ripple, but as Robert F. Kennedy once said, the confluence of many such small ripples can create a tidal force capable of changing history.

Let's continue together to love our sport, to support those who work to make it clean and fair, and to aim for genuine excellence in all we do as a Club.

Ed