Wednesday night. At a diner.

It's 11:00pm.  Wednesday night.  After getting home from the Morristown group run, I'm at some diner on Route 1.  Working on website content.  About to email two recruits from tonight.

Finding a new throws coach/captain

Just before going to bed last night, I was thrilled to get an email back from one of our throwers who inquired about the new throws coach role.  However, as I sat down to respond, I realized my response was going to entail explaining the job description, which would take a while.  Then it would require some research on throwing, as my extend of the sport is that, quite simply, those are some offing heavy things, and I have no idea how they throw them so far.

90 minutes and nine paragraphs later, the email is sent.  Fingers crossed.  He'd be a perfect dude for the role.

Okay, time to start the weekly email, an endeavor I've attempted twice already this weekend, in futility.

Actually, two emails to respond to first:  a former Monmouth University runner and a couch-to-5k inquirer.  THEN the weekly email will begin.

Weekend is Here!

After walking the Duffster, I headed out to a local diner with internet here in South Jersey.

The goal was to begin the weekly email, but this was, as always, curtailed by a host of other things:

1- looking up results in Survey Monkey for our next LT meeting, and emailing the LT about the results and our next meeting

2- corresponding again to an LT resignation

3- emailing with Amy about writing the club bylaws

4- responding to an email from a guy who wants to join the club, but is enrolling at Rowan.  Finally heard back from the Rowan coach, we agreed on a plan to move forward, so I emailed the athlete back.

5- responding to an email about club nationals that is brainstorming appropriate athletes to contact

6- responding to texts about the track meet tomorrow, resulting in me looking for and posting the meet schedule on the track FB page.

Weekly email is up next, after bringing some lunch to Leah.

July 4, 2014: Another Holiday

For a good bit now, I've considered keeping a blog.

No, not because I feel that the greater human society would somehow benefit from reading some sort of diary of mine.  In fact, when I think about blogs, I always think of Thoreau's quote, "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."  However, for selfish reasons, I've wanted to keep a record of the tasks required to keep this club floating.  Not just as a historical momento for the annals of the USATF Hall of Fame, but shit, maybe this can be like lesson plans.  Write down what you do today, then reuse it year after year afar year after year after year.  Hashtag, tenure.

What better day to start than July 4th, when our country started.  Also, it's a holiday.  And here I am, grinding away some GSTC work before heading down to South Jersey to see Leah's friends and family.

Can't really remember what it was like before, but today was no different than years past: 13 emails, 7 texts, and 5 Facebook notifications greeted me this morning.  If it was a school day, I would hammer out responses on my commute to work.  Can I get arrested for saying that?  If Leah was in bed, I would wait an hour or so.  But alas, no school, and no Leah (she left at 5am to start work), so it was just me, Duffy, and GSTC communication on this overcast, coldish July 4th.

First things first, I responded to an email from Ken to our women's co-captains.  It was about sending out an email to our potential women competing at club nationals in December.  I suggested a few moire women to add into the mass email.  Not sure about our other Leadership Team (LT) members, but I wish I planned my life in advance the way we do in this club.

Then I jumped on the South Enclave thread I started the night before.  Trying to get a running partner for today.  Appears I waited too late.  I like making South Jersey jokes. 

While walking Duffy, I saw a post about a misprinted bib from a race today.  I usually like to leave alone folks of other clubs, but I felt compelled to point out that the misprint could have been anyone's fault: the printer, the race director, etc.  Someone jumped in and agreed with me, which made me feel FB-Happy.  Hmm, I really only enjoy Facebook for purposes of levity and fun, but I have a strong knee-jerk response when I see posts that seem to direct misguided frustration at people.  Without knowing any information, why would anyone be so quick to point a finger, especially in public?  

Also saw a post from a new member proudly holding a trophy from a July 4th race.  I had to congratulate him.  He looked so happy.  

Now I'm at a Starbucks.  While excited to enjoy the holiday, there is work to do.  First, I need to respond to a resignation email of an LT member.  Then, I have to continue polishing the "elite bios" web page.  I asked about 40+ folks to copy, paste, and complete about ten lines of questions, but it's never that easy.  Some people write two pages, some people don't follow the instructions and give a different format, and others don't respond.  Just as much time is spent fixing mistakes or chasing down missing info than formatting what is given to me.  Oh, and once all the text is set, than it's a memory game of finding the best picture of that athlete in a club uniform.  This is the fourth sitting I've spent on this project.  I actually just heard from our web designer this morning, and it sounds like she is, in fact, able to design this page the way we want. 

Meanwhile, Gang Starr's "Work" just came on Spotify moments ago.  Sounds like the running gods are telling me to stop here and return to those bios.