T minus 2 weeks

Just a few things to share with you as we accelerate into the final two weeks of countdown to TIR 2009. First, we will be running with a considerably larger field this year. I talked to Jay Hillscher a week or so ago and he indicated something like 160 teams. I believe last year there were around 112. Also, and this is important, we have been assigned a starting time of 6:39. This puts us amongst the earlier starters, but I'm fine with this. Considering several personnel changes on our team, I frankly don't know if we can improve upon last year's finish time of 31:18:02, an average pace of 9:13, but I sure hope we will give it a shot.

Welcome to newcomers Dorian and Fred Ramirez. As of now, it still appears Maeve Goetz will not be able to run with us. She coaches track and the team has a meet that weekend. Come on Maeve. What's more important?

Brenda, the Wrunner Wrangler, has survived some surgery but will not be recovered in time to be with us. Nevertheless, she is working on van assignments and also on some decorative touches to our night running reflective vests. She doesn't know it yet, but I may still ask her to help with van rentals, at least with the rental which Steve and I will be driving. The other van will originate in Houston, and Alan and Marie Pekarik will be sharing the driving during the race. Thanks to Alan, Marie, and Steve for agreeing to help the team out in that way.

One other thing we should thank Brenda for are the hotel reservations she managed in Gonzales for Friday night, March 6. We've got four rooms, one of which offers two queen size beds and a sofa bed. I am proposing the following rooming arrangements:
Room 1: Alan and Marie
Room 2: Dorian and Fred
Room 3: Myself and ??
Room 4: Liz, Holly and our still to be announced 12th runner.
I'll post details on these rooms, the cost, etc. later this week. Denise, Brian and Steve - I assumed since last year you each chose to drive into Gonzales the morning of the race, that you will do the same this year. Not sure if we could have found any more Gonzales rooms, anyhow. That said, there might still be possibilities of rooms in Seguin. One last thing about the accomodations, and that is that Jonathon can room with me if that is most convenient.

Getting to Gonzales:
Alan and Marie will be driving one of the our vans over from Houston. I believe Holly has already made arrangements to catch a ride. Jonathon, depending on your needs, I am sure you could do the same, that is, catch a ride on the Houston van.

OK. I think this is all the important stuff for now. Again, I urge each of you to voice any ideas, concerns, etc. within this blog forum so we can smooth out any uncertanties as a team. I am not adverse to making the decisions and the plans; after all, I AM the captain. Nevertheless, I like the idea of democratising the process.

Oh...in case you are wondering, I have made leg assignments and will share all of that with you in a later post. Alan, Liz, Dorian and Jon have each agreed to run 4 legs each. The rest of us, assuming we resolve the issue of the missing 12th runner, will each run 3 legs.