Summer Vacation - After 11 Years, Live Life the Best You Can

So what did I do on most of my summer vacation? Well, happy to say I spent a good bit of it running - OK realistically, run/walk/running, with the teens from Teens Run Yonkers. I say run/walk/run because truthfully, at 47 and typically running 6 or 7 times a week, trying the Jeff Galloway method of running was the best way I figured out how to maintain my knees, joints and the rest of me. And I actually manage to shave just a few seconds off my miles and smile a bit more at the end of the run

Anyway, we had an excellent summer and thrilled to say that we have a team of 20 runners and mentors that will be participating in this Sunday's Yonkers Half Marathon. We'll all be doing the run at a variety of paces but that's really the beauty of it. What we constantly repeat is that your pace is your pace -and the goal is for you to give 110% of yourself every time you're out there. And these teens did. I'm incredibly proud of all the work our teens and mentors put out in the lead up to this event.

I always believe that when you do a run through some adversity - weather, challenges etc- it really builds you up. We actually had that experience this weekend when about a 1/4 way through our taper run on Saturday, the sky conveniently exploded. While I had said at the outset that although it looks like rain, let's just get out there and if it comes down, your call, no one quit. Teens and mentors all soldiered on through a really wet and dreary one - but they finished. Nothing like going home nice and soaked after a tough run.

I'm also excited that we built some cool new things into our program. We had an 8K kickoff run with our parters Yonkers on the Move; it was a great way to start off the season. We had Commitment Day a few weeks ago...Thanks to our friends and partners at Modell's, every runner that made the commitment to continue forward to the Yonkers Half Marathon got a new pair of running shoes to complete their training. In July, we had our first Mentors workshop and followed up with an even better attended one in August followed by a group dinner. And, for the first time ever, we gave our participants a survey to see how they feel about exercise, goals and other stuff before the race and how they see it after. All in all, some fantastic developments.

Like most today, I'm thinking about my life 11 years ago today - it was vastly different. And I still remember it like yesterday. I do feel like the best tribute we can offer to those who passed on that day is to live the best lives we can and make every day count. I'm doing my best and will continue to do so. Hope you are doing something positive to do so as well.