did I say 8 mentees?

... make that 11 now. heh. 3 signed up at the kick-off party.

(9 & 10) Kim and Frank. I don't know much about them yet, but they are married and both seem like neat people who will do well with the TNT program.

(11) VAL!!!! Yes, my running partner for the portland marathon is now one of my mentees! Ok, perhaps that's cheating a touch, but I don't care... I'm stoked having her in my numbers.

AND, I just had to fill out my first mentore report of the season (I guess I have to submit one every monday). Seems my mentees have already raised $1050 for LLS. Pretty good for our first weekend of the season! I'm gonna have fun watching that number grow... partly cause it's a metric of my success as a mentor, and partly cause I'm not having to fund-raise myself this season.

So, let me back track and talk about the Kick-off and our first training.

Kick-Off Party!!
It was fun. I realized that roses are quite easy to come by due to Valentine's Day looming on the horizon. I got a couple bundles of "Garden Roses" which means they aren't long stem, but rather have several blossoms per stem. Still quite pretty, and frankly, cheaper.

Showed up, found rock star street (free) parking, and went and decorated tables. I helped put up posters, and then began mingling with the new participants. I found several of my mentees, snapped photos and exchanged pleasantries with Tami, Gabrielle, Sheryl, Tonya, and Amy. Teresa and Becca didn't show up to the event though.

I ate some funny-tasting finger sandwiches (I opted for the white mystery meat flavor). Then we watched the info video and all the staff, coaches, captains, and mentors were introduced. For some weird reason, my name was called first out of the mentors. This made no sense to me. Why? I've got the least amount of running experience for one thing out of the mentors, and I don't come first alphabetically in ANY sorting of the mentors... still rather confused about this. I suppose it could be innocent, but I dunno. it's weird. Went up and got my mentor training jersey. It says MENTOR across it in large letters. heh.

After the big meeting, the running peeps met in another room to talk about running. I made a bit of a fool out of myself here... by cheering for Vancouver. Coach Joe stopped and looked at me and said he's never seen ANYONE show that kind of enthusiasm for the couv before. People laughed. I stood my ground and said I was making the couv awesome again. so there.

It was a good meeting, and I walked away pretty pumped. I probably should have gone and collected my roses afterwards, but oh well. They would have just slowly died and gathered dust in my house. They were really pretty tho. Maybe I'll actually get flowers from SOMEONE ELSE for V-day though... who? who knows... but a girl can hope, eh?

First Training
Showed up with coffee in hand and with Val in the car. I tried desperately to find Becca, Teresa, Kim, and Frank before we began. Only succeeded in finding Kim & Frank. It was nice saying hi to them in person atleast. We began by learning about the weekly workout sched, learned good stretching techniques, and then met the other runners in a quick social exercise. After this, it was time to run.

Coach Joe wanted the mentors to be stationed ALONG the running course instead of running themselves... cheering on the participants. All well and good, except it was freezing and beginning to rain. Yay.

I got stationed at the bottom of a large hill on the 6mi course. Instead of standing still, I insisted on running the block back and forth. I would escort some runners to the end of the block, and then run back to the other end and look for more runners to escort. It was nice. While running with various participants I was able to chat with them a little. I think it worked well.

Then, eventually, the runners started coming back (it was an out and back course), and so I did the same thing in the other direction. How far did I go? who knows!?! I was pacing that block at various speeds for a while atleast. 45 minutes? eh. I think I ran atleast 3 miles, which works fine for me.

The rain was coming down fairly hard by the time the practice was over. A group of us ended up going out for breakfast at the cadillac cafe on East Broadway following the run, which totally hit the spot.

The group seems like a GREAT group of runners. Lots of really nice, enthusiastic people. Looking forward to the season now!