October 27th Run

Today's Run

We had a  turnout of some 17 runners today, with earlier starts by some of  the seven people in the group who are training for the Space Coast Marathon (Dylan, Atif, Jen and Vince)  Brad made it out again today, so it looks like his injury is behind him

 

Marine Corp Marathon

Today we had three of our group running the 38^th Marine Corp Marathon: Geralynn & daughter Jacklynn, Mike and Ben.)  We hope you did well and that you will let us know how you fared. 

 

A group of Marine and Army veterans were scheduled to parachute in immediately before the start of the race. An 11-member skydiving team was to carry a 7,800 square foot American flag, the largest flag to be included in a performance jump. They were scheduled to land while the National Anthem was being sung.  Wow!  I would love to have been there!! 

 

I've done Marine Corp five times. It was my very first marathon (at age 50) and I last ran it at age 59.  Over that nine year span, my time dropped from 4:15 to 3:54, all in "the pre-chip era".

 

Safety

Dylan reported that there was a suspicious incident this morning involving a young lady while he was getting some miles in before our 7:00 AM start.  She asked Dylan if she could run with him because a pick-up truck has passed her three times in downtown Winter Park and she was understandably upset.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I once again underscore the danger for our female runners going it alone before daylight.

 

Blanket Collection

Please come join us next Sunday, our blanket collection weekend.  We will be accepting blankets from 6:30 AM and our run will start as usual at 7:00 AM.  This run historically has drawn a large turnout of our local runners, so please come join us.  Dave Berry once again has volunteered to collect and deliver the blankets to the homeless shelter.  Thank you Dave!!

 

What happens to the blankets we are collecting?

The picture below shows a portion of the Men's Pavilion at the Coalition for the Homeless in downtown Orlando.  Each night an average of 250 homeless men sleep on this floor on a mat furnished by the Shelter.  One can only imagine what it is like to sleep in a cramped space without a blanket on a cold night.

 

This is where our blanket collection comes into play. Over the past five years we have collected 1000 blankets to provide some minimum level of comfort to homeless men..

 

The good news is that the Coalition is nearing completion of a new Men's Service Center early next year.  This new facility will allow for significant improvement in the quality of life for these homeless men who still need to get through the Winter.

 

 

 

Have a great week!

 

Jack