New Year's Message

With the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 upon us, I find it the perfect time to reflect on what we have accomplished in the past year and what things we would like to accomplish in the New Year.

So if you are a participant or a volunteer in Students Run Oakland (SRO) these are some of the things that you have done in 2009:

• Felt the initial dread at running less than 1 lap around Lake Merritt and thinking that you would never be able to do it.
• 13 Weeks of ever-intensifying training
• Running in some beautiful locations throughout the Bay Area
• Completing your first double-digit run - 10 miles! Woohoo!
• 26 Cross-training sessions at the YMCA
• Running many more laps around Lake Merritt
• And realizing that you actually are going to be able to complete the LA Marathon

And then these are the things that we have to look forward to in the New Year:
• Only 13 more weeks of training
• Completing your first Half Marathon
• Completing your first 20 mile run
• Flying to LA and actually completing the LA Marathon.
• Realizing that you can do anything that you want as long as you make the decision to do it, and then doing the work needed to accomplish it.

With these ideas in mind we can look back at all of the work that we have done so far and be proud of our accomplishments. But more importantly we can realize that we can do so much more than that. The beginning of the New Year is an excellent take to re-commit yourself to SRO and what it stands for. We all need to commit ourselves to doing the work necessary to have a successful marathon in LA.

For the students that means running, cross-training, showing up, ensuring that your grades are where they need to be, going to tutoring if necessary, and communicating to the volunteers and staff when you have questions or need help to do all of this.

Steve Roberts
Volunteer Coordinator