I thought the guest presentation was pretty much common sense and rather boring. I give the guy credit for showing up, though. I don't know what the club expected to get out of it. It was interesting to hear that they cannot recall a single crime that has occurred on any of the trails. I'm sure it will happen eventually, especially as the trails get bigger and more populated. We all do a pretty poor job of hiding our keys, wallet, and phones. I bring my car key, so it can't get stolen, but I still leave my wallet and other keys in the car. Too bad this car's glove box doesn't have a lock. Does anyone actually put gloves in a glove box these days? I was honestly a little disappointed in the meeting. I don't know what I expected, but the meeting seemed more like a chore to some of the people in charge than something to be enjoyed. I sort of expected we would all eat together and talk about random things, then the formal meeting would be a small part of it. I was a bit surprised that the whole focus was the meeting itself and that there really wasn't time set aside to just be social. I guess what I'm saying is that I wanted it to be social, but it was mostly business. I'm glad the trail series is making the CBRC money-- maybe next time we can order more pizzas! Two pieces is probably all that I should eat, but I'm sure all of us would have gladly eaten several more if available. I can't complain, though; I could always just buy my own food when I'm there if I actually want to chow down. I got some perspective from the meeting about what it might cost to host a race and I'm sure I could talk to Paul to see an actual cost breakdown of one.

I mostly agree with you -- the business stuff is kinda boring, and it'd be nicer if it were more social. And the presentations aren't necessarily interesting -- don't actually have them very often -- they make the meeting run longer too. On the plus side, it is an excuse to get a couple people to go running (we've been doing a pre-meeting run for a while now), and get some pizza -- altho it is a bit of a wait from when finishing running, going to meeting, and then waiting for pizza to show up. I've started eating the pizza when it arrived instead of waiting for them to declare a pizza break before, when I was hungry and decided I didn't care to wait It is a chance to put some faces to names, of people you'll probably see around the local races.

Phil, is this title available at Bay Books? http://www.amazon.com/Once-Runner-Novel-John-Parker/dp/1416597883/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Absolutely, I'll send you an email with my info.

An American male and female each finished in the top three. I knew both Hall and Goucher would finish strong, but I'm not sure if either was considered a safe bet. Women's race was decided by one second. Were you watching the race, Joe, or following along on a blog somewhere? Some big names were missing on both sides. Bill Rodgers is on pace for 3:37:53, according to the athlete tracker. I imagine the televised broadcast is following him heavily, at this point.

I was just refreshing the main Boston Marathon site, which was several minutes behind and told very little. It sounds to me like Goucher and Hall both could have benefitting from drafting instead of leading. I can understand Ryan wanting to set a pace early on, but I can't understand such a good short distance runner like Goucher wanting to lead for so long, because she would have been one of the more likely candidates for running a faster finish if they were underpace. The women's race was very close, though. I feel terrible for that one lady getting second two years in a row. Second two years in a row is more of an accomplishment than many people will ever get, but she has to be kicking herself. I didn't expect either to win. I'm happy they finished top 3, though. I was a little upset more big names didn't participate, but it's nice to see the two American names up there. The top 10 on both sides was almost entirely dominated by Africa.

I read this excerpt of a high school coach interviewing the University of Colorado's coach and found it applicable to some of us back in the day and perhaps to a few of us these days. The difference between back then and now is that we can actually slack off in our extra races so as not to over-do things; whereas back in high school when it was a competition we had to go all-out every race. DT – I have read that you believe that high school runners race too much. How can a high school coach change their training program because their runners compete on average every week of the track or cross country season? MW – It would be presumptuous of me to dictate to high school coaches. They have to work within a system they’re handed. But I guess they could look very critically at the tempting, extra meets. Where I’m from, back East, there is some Invitational or Relay meet every weekend. Are you going there for the development of the athlete… or for you?

Joe – I’m not sure if I agree with the college coach’s generalization that certain high school coaches schedule so many meets to satisfy their egos, but I definitely think that the average high school runner may have raced too much where we come from. Then again, it could be worse. A co-worker who went to high school in Germany told me how her cross country team would often race 2-3 times per WEEK! Their, fastest runners were only in the low 20s for a 5K, but they may have just sucked. There’s no further proof either way. Of course, I’m also not sure if I raced too often or trained too hard in high school. It could also have been that my average long run was only 8-9 miles, and I was probably drastically over-estimating my pace. Probably a combination of all of these things. Some runners probably benefit from more rest during racing time. I don’t know, this is probably why I’m never going to be a running coach. All I know is that Coach Einboden was faced with many runners who did little training over the summer in conjunction with a SMAC-created schedule that had us at weekly meets. I think it may have been better to have only 2-3 meets per month, but maybe have 4-5 teams per race instead of 2-3. This reminds me… while cleaning out some stuff from my parents’ basement over the weekend, I discovered my high school running awards. Amongst the treasures was the age group award I won from when Phil, Joe and I dominated the first annual (and only?) Hornet 5K, and many team plaques including the infamous “Most Promising” award. I’m at a loss as to what to do with that, but it’s now sitting in my basement.