It's a Blowout

No, not the championship basketball game -- that is more of rock fight as I type this up. The weather forecast for Tuesday is a blowout. And it's testing even my normally cheerful disposition. Wind chill of 31 degrees with 96% chance of rain...20+ mile per hour wind (not counting the gusts). NICE!

This is one of those days where I think you would be insane to TRY. But I'll be there. At 5:30. Anyone else I see there, I will make a mental note to mark you down as "prone to make poor life decisions" and will have to keep an extra keen eye on you for the rest of the running season. :-) Seriously, if the weather plays out as predicted, don't come out. Unless you want to.

News:
Did you know that you can get to the TRY blog through a shortened web url:
www.thereisatry.com (yes, I paid for the domain name. Through go daddy. What can I say, I'm a big fan of elephant killers apparently.)
Next Tuesday, you can look forward to a special song written for the TRY ladies headed off to Singapore to race.
Opening Day for the Syracuse Chiefs is next Wednesday.
Making Tracks for Celiacs 5k trail run or 1 mile walk is Saturday, April 30th. Have I mentioned it enough yet:

This next part makes me feel a little guilty that I can't offer it to all my running buddies, but I guess it can't be helped. Maybe it can encourage others to seek out sponsorship from their respective companies? It doesn't hurt to ask.

Non-Lockheed Martin employees -- go to the "TRY Lockheed Martin" team page to sign up for the event by "joining our team".

Lockheed Martin employees -- follow the instructions below -- it is a free entry to the first 30 who sign up, thanks to the generous donation from the Lockheed Martin Federated Fund.

Letter emailed at Lockheed with details within it for everyone:
The "Making Tracks For Celiacs" 5k Cross Country Run and 1 Mile walk is Saturday, April 30th at Jamesville Beach County Park. (Registration at 9, events at 10.)

Due to the support of the Lockheed Martin Federated Fund, the registration fee is covered for the first 30 Lockheed Martin employees who respond to me. For friends and family, the registration fee is $15 until April 15th, and $20 from that point until the day of the event. Children age 6 to 12 is $5 and age 5 and under are free.

For those getting the registration fee paid for by the federated fund, you have to email me directly and I'll pas s along the information to have it added to the team page. (Unfortunately that is the only way to get you your free entry this year.) Family and friends should follow the "Join Our Team" link through the website.

The information I need from you:
Name

Email

Address, City, State, Zip Code

Registration type: Walker or Runner

Gender

Age

T-shirt size


The 5k course is a cross country trail and consists of roughly half open field running and half trail running. There are enough hills to get your attention and the trail portion could be muddy at this time of year. The fields are uneven as well, so you need to be mindful of your footwork the entire race.
The 1 mile walk course is through the same open fields.

The main event website. Click on Syracuse, NY on the left hand side.
The team fundraising website. (Team TRY Lockheed Martin - there are a couple group glamour shots from last year on there). You have to authenticate to get to it from work or send this information home to sign in there.

This is a fundraising event, so you are encouraged to raise funds, but it certainly is not mandatory. The biggest help will be to get enough people to maximize the Federated Fund contribution.
For those who fundraise over $100, you are entered in a special raffle for an undisclos ed prize. (Think iPod or something similar.)

There are several gluten free vendors that provide free samples in the vendor area and there is a large basket raffle that you can participate in.
Parking is free and this is a family friendly event. There are some games and face painting for children.

For more information on Celiac Disease. If you happen to know people in your life that have celiac disease or are gluten sensitive, let them know about this event as it is still not very well known in our community.

Last years event was in mid-May. This year it has been moved up and just happens to be on the day before the Dunn Tire Mountain Goat Race. So, instead of that scaring you off, I am challenging all comers to do the "May Day Daffy Challenge". A 5k on the 30th, and a 10 miler on May Day, for 13.1 miles of all the hills you could want that weekend. All participants in the May Day Daffy Challenge will get a handshake from me. :-)

This is the second year that I've organized the Lockheed team for this event. Some feedback from last year:
The goodie bag was excellent - but you only get one per family. (Lots of gluten free items that you woudn't normally consume. People had fun cooking and eating them.)
The shirts were very nice. (Technical weave. Last year they had plenty of extra and were selling them very cheaply late in the event.)
The 5k course was definitely not a road race. (Some people hated it and it's ankle threatening terrain. Some people loved getting back to their cross-country running roots.)
The event and especially the run was loosely organized. (We are working on improving upon that. Could use some volunteers to help out! Let me know if you are interested in that.)
The Lockheed Martin team and the Federated Fund contributions were a major part of the event and a significant source of the overall funding. They really appreciated us being there last year...let's impress them even more this year!

End of letter.

Closing thoughts -- I was blown away during some internet stalking efforts recently. I was looking up a race result of a TRYer to see how they had done. And could barely believe my eyes! I knew they were ready for this type of performance, as they had earned it with their training plan they've been following the last few weeks...but to see it played out in an official event is still different animal altogether. This is one of those races that they'll be able to remember for the rest of their career and I could not have been more proud of what I saw:

Mark Fitzpatrick had gotten 659th out of 1466 in his division at the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race in Washington DC! Great job breaking into the top 660 Mark! I can't help but think our shared Mountain Goat training run prepared you for just such a finish.

On a lesser note, Kelly Murlick did ok over the weekend too.

:-)

Sorry, you two, couldn't help it. At least those two paragraphs had more drama then tonights second half, right? Obviously I jest -- Kelly lit it up! And Mark did exactly what he was hoping for in an early season long race. (And as perhaps only Mark truly knows - he is "still the man" when it comes to the TRY blog entries.)

For the love of God, please let this end!!!! (The game and this weeks blog update.) Uggggghhh.