QUOTE OF THE DAY

Thomas Jefferson: "But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."

Last night was the first night of my Oakville Running Room clinic - a great group of people, a good combination returning friends and brand new friends -- More sunshine into my life for sure. Every body seems to be quite committed and that is just great to see.

We have to basic rules at our Clinic(other that have fun first obviously) - and those are 1) DO NOT ever call yourself "JUST A WALKER" - you are a competitive athlete just like any runner - in face, more of a competitive endurance athlete - in the 21.1 and 42.2 we are more intense over a longer period of time.

AND

2) If you enter a race as a Walker - you walk - if you plan to run at all, register as a runner !!! -- enough said - I don't need to get on my soap box about this one again.

I often say the feeling of crossing the line the first time at a Marathon or Half

Marathon is like nothing you have ever experience before. An amazing statistic I read the other day - if you complete a marathon you are in a very small percentage of the population to ever experience the feeling - In fact, less than 1% of the population in North America last year did so, based on the number of Marathon finishers total in all races in North America in 2006 - and that does not even take into account the number of athletes who completed multiple marathons or number of competitors who reside out of continental North America. Statistics are similar in shorter races as well -although the percentages are slightly higher, as there are more shorter races available, and more people enter shorter races than longer endurance races.

A Sobering Statistic -- See WALKERS -- each and everyone of you has elite status..