A funny thing happened on the way to the Bethesda fountain...

Some interesting developments have been taking place in the last couple of weeks on the SLG/ABC front. Has anybody noticed how quiet the SLG'ers have been lately? Hibernation should be over by now. Temperatures should be conducive to running, yet, nobody seems to communicate about running lately. Growing pains of SLG? No more interest in running? Real life taking over? (No, not that, please!!!)
I am a bit suspicious of Erik. With the half marathon on his home court only two weeks away, I think he has pulled out all stops and is training so hard that he has no time for anything else. Obviously he has winning on the brain.
Voila, the subject of the New Jersey half is on the screen now. Who dreamt up the starting time of this event. 7.15 a.m???? We can be back in bed by 10. But of course we won't be back in bed, we will be at "Chez Sevenants" for brunch afterwards, with, as Erik has advertised : "Half portions"
I am sure I will be "half asleep" with a starting time of 7.15 a.m.
Anyway, I actually have another concern. Although I will definitely be down at the Jersey shore for this event, I am not a 100% sure I will be running it. The coach is hobbled. I ran the More half marathon three weeks ago and I thought it went OK, not great but I was happy with my time. Then I went running a few times the week after and it just didn't go well. The Sunday after the half, there was a 10 k race (the Scotland run) and slowly but surely I was starting to realize that I probably wouldn't be able to run my desired sub 8min/miles. So there I was, joined by Gil and Mark and sure enough, in the third mile my left butt (which I had been trying to ignore very hard) started to act up to the point that I could not really run decently. I thought for a while to quit but I decided to stick it out. (hey another race towards the 9 required for guaranteed entry for next year). By the time I finished, I was pretty sore and so stiff that I couldn't really lift my left leg. A bit of a bummer but my sciatica is back in full force.
Anyway, no need to say I haven't been running since then but I did make one exception. Margarita (ABC) was running a 4 mile race last Sunday and I decided I would run with her. All of a sudden, she had a veritable entourage when Anne (ABC and wife of founding father Stefan) also decided to run. And here is where the funny thing on the way to the Bethesda fountain started to happen. You have to know this about Anne. She used to be a serious 800 meter running in high school in Germany but had not run for the last few years. She had a false start last year when she decided to train for a race but got tendinitis in her Achilles tendons immediately. So she decided to take it easy for the NEXT YEAR, until last Sunday when she would run this 4 miler.
The start was on 68th street on the east drive. So, the first mile was uphill (the famous cat hill in the park). We were very conservative, "running" it in 11'49", and we lost Margarita almost immediately in the crowd. The second mile (the easiest mile on the course) we ran in 10' even. Then, on the west side, Anne started to accelerate a bit and in the last mile I told her to go for it. My butt had been bothering me pretty much in the first two miles but then it stabilized a bit. Anyway, on the downhill part Anne pulled away from me and I got a bit concerned that she would beat me. Luckily, right before the turn onto the 72nd street transverse, I caught up with her and we finished in a respectable 39.51 or 9'57 minute mile.
So, here is Anne, who hasn't really run in years and she just wips out this race like that, running every mile faster than her previous one. WOW!!!!!!
By doing this, she has officially lost her title of lazy f..( no, it is not what you think), she is no longer the lazy fox, that title has now been handed down to Wendy. Wendy, you are now officially notified of the title!!!
But that is not the only achievement of the ABC's (Absolutely Fabulous Chicks, or those people among you who have forgotten who we are) .
Margarita reached her goal by finishing the race without having to walk so congrats to her!!!AND there is extremely exciting running news from the Chicago chapter. Petra has also started to run again and ran her first race. A 5 miler! Rumor has it that she had to slow down at the end so she wouldn't beat Philippe. (Philippe, you wanted to be mentioned in the next e-mail, well you are mentioned.)
Other newsworthy things (thank God there is not much news, otherwise this e-mail would never end)
1/ More injury news. Founding father Stefan has been having issues with his Soleus muscle (or so I have diagnosed it) and has not been able to run for 3 weeks. He is extremely worried that his sub 8min/mile streak is going to end and I have a lot of sympathy for that.

2/Thomas hurt his back lifting his boat (what serious runner lifts boats in his spare time?) but apparently he is getting better.

3/What is the Vandenabeele/Devos family up to? Haven't heard from them since they moved back to Belgium

4/ Liesbet, it is very quiet in London or wherever you are.

5/ Got some pictures from Claudia last week. Oh man, is she having a tough life in Caracas and surroundings. The pictures from Los Roques (yes she went back to Los Roques without me) almost made me cry.

6/ I am sick of the renovation at SLG headquarters now. Although I like the way things look, like with all renovation projects, work has slowed down a lot in the last 3 weeks and I am getting a bit frustrated. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but all of a sudden I want to have my life back, I want more space to live in and I want to be able to plan BBQ's and other social events. How are we going to move the red couch back through the window and down if we don't have the prerequisite excuse BBQ to get the strong men here.

Anyway, that's all for now (I know, I know, not a moment too soon). I hope we'll have a decent showing of the New York members in New Jersey. For running or cheering!!!! Lief