President Coutu Bids You Adieu

Posted by: Preztc

May has been a month of merriment! Actually the hard work had to be put in before the revelry around the Maypole. Just ask Leah Thorvilson and all our members who participated in the Fargo Marathon Saturday May 15 ^{about the pain and glory. Leah has tried and worked hard the past couple of years to qualify for the Olympic Trials and she succeeded at Fargo. Anyone who knows Leah can attest that she cares about everyone else’s goals and accomplishments as well as her own and is so much fun to be around, but this quote from www. Arkansas360sports.com 05/25/2010 states just how serious this woman is:}

We all are so proud of her and appreciate her contribution to our club and team. I am proud of all our members and their accomplishments. There are many members who have had notable things in their lives this month. Paul Ward is mentioning some and so is Jenny Weatter, but let me make mention of long time member and contributor to the running community and this club, as well as an amazing athlete. David Williams was honored by the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association as a co-recipient of the Henry Woods Lifetime Achievement Award. (The Little Rock Roadrunners club receives valuable gratis advice from Mr. Williams) David put a lot of work in the beginning of my term writing the By Laws we now have in place. Thank you, David.

Members who attended our May meeting benefitted from knowledgeable and gratis advice from Mike DuPriest. Mike gave an interesting and fact-filled talk with some opinion thrown in (although he tried to refrain from offering opinion) on shin splints. Mike speaks through his medical background as a chiropractor here in town as well as an athlete; he runs 100 milers, bikes or runs to work daily. Thank you, Mike.

May began as predicted with the hot, wet, humid conditions to make everyone’s efforts at Toad Suck and Rexfest more challenging. Toad Suck was a little drier this year as thankfully we did not receive the deluge of rain as predicted. The following weekend Go! Running sponsored the MacArthur Park 5K, a Friday evening fundraiser for the downtown military museum. This was so much fun because when we were through slogging through the steamy and breezy downtown streets we were rewarded with pizza, beer, live music, and a medal awarding ceremony by 42 NCAA championships coach John McDonnell. As well as “rubbing elbows” with a bunch great people-Bill Hoffman, Steve Preston, Michael Harmon, Steve Yanoviak and Eileen Turan, Rob Wistrand, Chuck Spohn, Bill/ Carole Torrey, new member and winner of the female division Tracey Johanning, the S-skis’ entourage, Erin/Gary Taylor (sponsors), Ashley and Jon Honeywell, and many more - if I did not mention you, I’m sorry but I was glad to see you all there enjoying the lawn party!

Running and family joys continued with the Dino Dash held Saturday, May 22. Adult and child athletes abounded in the Rivermarket along with happy vendors and cheerleaders. Member Patrick Mathieu, aka Skippy Peanut Butter Potentate, created more happiness in the crowd by giving away jars of the good stuff. It was a pleasure to witness the excitement of the children and family runners like the Spohns, Barrons, Olneys, Taylors (Go Running), Wistrands, Hildebrands, and Dellimores (The Dino Dash featured family) come across the finish as part of a fabulous finish line crew-Polly and John Russell, Paul Ward, B. Torrey, Harold Hays, Craig Lair, Bryan Jones, Eileen Turan forgive me, I know I left many out. Second time Race Director Jeff Maher did a nice job handling the record registrants. As a part of the finish line team I got to stand in the onset of finishers and tell the “men” where to go. This job in the past was Karen Call’s and those are tough running shoes to fill! Again I had to leave the visiting of many fine folks and enjoying cheering of the tots to go sell those running shoes at Gary Smith’s Easy Runner :).

This was a bittersweet column for me to write as it is my last President’s message. The June 17th LRRC monthly meeting will be elections where members will formally vote in the new slate of officers and Brian S-ski will be your next president-Good Luck Brian and officers up for election (Leah, Steve P and Jenny)! I will still be on “board” to help accomplish some things to continue the growth and development of our wonderful club. Members please keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy your running. As I wrote in June of 2009 it was/is an honor to serve the club and it certainly has been a wonderful year and I have loved every minute of it.

Happy Fathers Day!

Tina