Fitness is in!!

Have you noticed how every time you turn on the telly there is a new diet, a new exercise device, or a story about how someone has lost a bunch of weight and totally changed their life? After a decade of seeing America getting heavier and more out of shape, finally the tide is turning. Fitness is the "new cool!" Count the commercials on TV that use clips of runners bounding down a trail to sell their goods. Many times, the product being sold has nothing at all to do with running, but the active lifestyle gets the viewers attention. The same goes for magazine ads. Pictures of couch potatoes sitting with the remote in hand will not entice someone to buy laundry soap or paper towels.

Where are you in the grand scheme of things? Are you at a point in your life where your most active days are in the past? Does the very idea of keeping up with your kids wear you out? I am here to tell you that 2008 is the year to turn it all around. Of course, it could be argued that I believe running is the answer to all of life's problems (isn't it??) but just getting outside, biking, walking, parking a little further away from the front door at Wal-Mart, anything that makes you work just a little bit harder helps in the long run (no pun intended). I like to think of it as... each day I do just a little bit more, burning just a few more calories, I add just a little bit more to my lifetime. The added benefit is that my quality of life also goes up. Helping someone else to begin to reach their goals is just icing on the cake! (Cake is good!)

RunnersWorld-Tulsa opened over 30 years ago, offering the latest in running shoes and technical sports apparell. RunnersWorld-Tulsa also sponsors a "Newbies" group, where new runners can meet and run with other folks of similar abilities. People who have never ran a step but want to, can begin walking for fitness with others in the same boat. People who have ran for a while, and want to train for longer distances like the Tulsa Run 15K, or a marathon can train with friends who are also in that training mode. Best of all, the training starts as easy as you need it to be, and there is no drill sergeant

barking out orders.(We do have a runner named Dave Sargent, but he's a NICE guy.)

We meet on Tuesdays at 68th and Riverside Drive at 5:30 pm, and at RunnersWorld at 43rd and Peoria on Thursdays at 5:30 pm. Saturday mornings we meet back at 68th and Riverside for our longer runs, usually at 7:00 am and 8:00 am. The Saturday times change as the seasons and weather dictates. The group is led/coached/cheered on by Kathy Hoover, a girl who has been running since she was in Dry-Fit diapers!

This blog will serve to tell great success stories and inspirational race reports, and post pictures of smiling, sweatty runners! Beware of the guy with the camera!!! :-) And please share your comments, running stories, milestones, photos, and advice.

Come join us! Let's run for the fun of it!