Please Welcome Arturo Aldama

I just received an email confirmation from Arturo Aldama that he will be joining our team for the upcoming TIR. That is great news! Arturo is a very good runner and also has a great enthusiasm for classical music. Please join me in welcoming Arturo to the Mid-Texas Symphony running team.

This still leaves us one runner short in replacing Brian and Denise. Holly's sister will not be able to run with us, so let's all continue to seek one more female runner. I have sent an email appeal to Shelly Campbell, an accomplished triathlete and important coach in the region. It would be great if Shelly would run with us - we could all learn so much - but I'll be happy as well if she can recommend a good runner for us. In the meanwhile I encourage each of you to check around and see if you might help find our 12th runner.

I ran a 6 miler last week in the rain, partly because I had been a couple of days on the road and was antsy to pound some pavement, but also to explore the remote possiblity we might run out of the dry running we've had so far with the TIR. I don't really own any wet weather running gear, but I found an old windbreaker I bought many years ago which proved serviceable. Under the windbreaker I wore a couple of layers of good wicking t-shirts, a long sleeve worn over a short sleeve. My cotton sweat pants are far from state of the art, but they functioned. It was socks which proved to be my best tool. Puddles were frequent and deep. There was no avoiding getting my feet wet. But the socks, the nice Sock Guy socks which the TIR passed out in the first year, proved to be extremely effective at wicking moisture away from my feet. My Nikes also did a pretty good job of shedding water on the run. The point of all this, of course, is a reminder that come race weekend we should always keep an eye to the weather and, if necessary, pack several pairs of good wicking socks and maybe even a spare pair of shoes.

Continued happy running all. I am off to Austin this weekend to run the 3M Half Marathon. Liz will be there too. It's a great course and the 3M goody bag is still very generous. Wish us luck and good weather.

Oh yeah! We are all still cheering the good news from Steve that he is once again allowed to extend his distance and the agressiveness of his workouts. Take that(!) Achilles tendon.