Kaiser Half-Marathon Logistics

Students, for this weekend's Half Marathon, meet at your schools at 6:00am. The bus will take you to San Francisco for the Half Marathon! Remember to get a good night's sleep, drink water before you go to bed and again when you get up, and to eat breakfast. Your Student Handbook has more tips on race preparation, and the Nutrition resources section on this website has some suggestions about healthy breakfasts. Good luck!!

Volunteers, for this weekend's Half Marathon, meet at 7am at JFK and Transverse Drive (near 19th) in Golden Gate Park. There is parking where Golden Gate Park meets the Great Highway, with free shuttles to the start, or you can use the paid parking at Fulton and 10th. Please work with your friends in SRO and/or your Lead Volunteers if you are interested in carpooling, as parking is limited. For more information about parking go to the race website. Starting at 7am, we'll be picking up our bib #s and helping the students get ready for the race. Starting at 8am, we'll be running with the students! The race starts at 8am at JFK Drive east of Stow Lake Drive and finishes on MLK Drive near the Great Highway. See the course map. See you this weekend!

Getting Ready for Kaiser Half Marathon!

Students, your double-digit runs of the past few weeks are about to pay off! We're looking forward to the Kaiser Half Marathon on Sunday, February 1. Your waivers must be turned in to your captain already in order for you to participate in the race. In the mean time, we'll see you for an easy six miles at MLK Shoreline this coming Saturday.

Volunteers, if you would like to run with the students at Kaiser, the registration fee is $40 and is due in Christine's hands by Thursday, Jan 22nd. SRO will cover $20 of this fee for the first 25 volunteer registrations. Please contact Christine Chapon for questions or information on where to mail or drop off your application. Thank you for your support and patience as we work out the registration details with the generous support of Pamakids Runners.

Starting the year with long runs

Students and Volunteers, Welcome back from the holiday season!

We have several happy holiday moments together (see photos below) and hope that you had some of your own with friends and family.

Our first long run back to school was a doozy! We ran 10 miles on the Lafayette-Moraga trail, and we'll running 10 miles again this weekend starting at the Berkeley Marina -- our last long run before the Kaiser Half Marathon on February 1st.

Volunteers, before then, remember to RSVP for the Volunteer Meeting on Thursday, Jan 15th from 6:30-8pm at 1000 Broadway, Suite 500 in Oakland. Email Volunteer Coordinator Christine Chapon to let her know if you can make it or not.

LMJS 10k race: the start

LMJS 10k race: happy finishers

See more photos of the Christmas Relays and more photos of the LMJS 10k Race thanks to Marcus' mom!

Volunteer Meeting and Signups

Volunteers, 

Please mark your calendars for the Volunteer Meeting on Thursday, January 15th from 6:30-8pm at the Alameda County Public Health Dept, 1000 Broadway in Oakland, Suite 500. It's critical that you attend given we will discuss the remainder of the season including your availability between now and May.

Please also RSVP for the January runs. We do not have enough volunteers signed up for this weekend. Please check the Calendar page and use the sign up form to let us know if you can attend each run or not. Thanks and see you Saturday! 

Happy New Year: Message from the Executive Director

Happy New Year

Last New Years I wrote about how I have always found the start of a new year to be energizing. That it gives us the opportunity to reflect and focus on what we want to improve upon. And that this ritual of deciding on our resolutions, our goals, held true for me personally and was true for SRO. Usually, at the start of the New Year, we are more than half way through SRO’s season. We traditionally quickly transitioned from the students being off for the holidays to an aggressive “welcome back” into an intensive training for the remaining few weeks of the season. This year, with five months ahead of us, the Los Angeles Marathon now in late May, we have a different set of opportunities. And a different set of challenges.

As I reflect on the past year and look forward to the new one, I am thankful for SRO’s staff, volunteers, community partners, and our students. Perhaps, I am invigorated to start the New Year, because I have the knowledge that our collective efforts will produce another successful season. So, I will keep my remarks much shorter for now… as you will be hearing from me a lot more over the next five months.

Thank you for a great 2008! Happy New Year to you and your families.

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." - Ellen Goodman

- Spencer Hooper