And Counting…

We’ve had two information meetings for the Las Vegas RnR half marathon season with Team Challenge. These are the meetings where people can learn more about the program and register to take part. We still have 3 more meetings yet to come. But even without three more meetings we already have 96 participants signed up.

NINETY-SIX!!! 96!!!

Yipes! This is going to be a large team. I’m excited and scared at the same time. I’m a little afraid that I won’t be able to learn people’s names, and I just don’t want to be the coach that is like, “Hey… you…!” Or ending up calling everyone “Sport” or “Buddy” or “Girlfriend” or something equally lame.

At each of the meetings there is time for the coaches to talk about the program and to reassure everyone that we’ll take them up to the half marathon distance safely. There is also time for one of our mentors to talk. At last Tuesday’s meeting one of our runners from the Napa season spoke, as she is returning as a mentor. She stood and talked about how she thought she was absolutely crazy when she embarked on the training last season and how she was “built for comfort, not speed.” Then she got a little teary-eyed and said that she never finished a training alone, how I was always there to run her into the finish. And how she got almost to mile 13 in the race and she heard me calling out to her and ran her up to the finish line and how much that support meant to her.

And her emotion got me a little emotional.

Yes, this coaching gig takes a lot of time from my schedule. Yes, it does preclude me from running some races for myself. Yes, it makes it hard to plan trips out of town. And yet… it is so worth it! Meeting so many wonderful people and sharing the wonderful feelings that can come from challenging yourself and completing something you never thought possible, the feeling is amazing!