The past few days have been busy around here. Spending time with family as we celebrated Thanksgiving. And I will be the first to say that I have so much to be thankful for! I am thankful for my beautiful family – near, far, immediate and extended. (I can even overlook that you were 30 minutes late for Thanksgiving dinner!) And I know every member of my family is thankful that Grandpa is with us. The week prior he was placed on a ventilator and things were really touch and go. But he is doing better and getting stronger every day. Simply put: He is one of the toughest men I know! I hope I have some of that “fight” in my genes. He definitely helped my family to remember all we can be thankful for.
Along with all I have to be thankful for, I feel I have a little something to be proud of too. Now, it really wasn’t anything major but I am going to “toot my own horn” here for a minute. I figured if anyone could appreciate this, the gals at GOTRIbal could and especially our fearless leader Tanya!
Now that I am a personal trainer and a cycling instructor at the local gym I have such a unique opportunity to reach out to those who want to increase the quality of their life by being active. To reach out to those who have some of the same interests as I do. As my community is (slowly) becoming more active I would love to see more events here, including a Turkey Trot. So on the Monday before Thanksgiving, I decided “why don’t I create one?”
And that is exactly what I did. Using class as a bit of a platform for announcements and relying on the world of social networking, I put the word out about an “Impromptu 5k Turkey Trot”. No entry fee, no prizes: just come out and walk or run before you spend the day overeating – there is power in numbers!
You know that line from the movie Field of Dreams?
“If you build it, he will come.”
Well, with only 3 days notice I had 10 people show up. To be honest, I thought that was pretty good! I live in a community of about 2000 people, I have nearly 300 Facebook “Friends” and I teach a class that has 9 bikes. All of this, combined with the short notice, amounted to 10 people. And yes, I am aware that 10 people aren’t a lot in the grand scheme of things. But it is something and it is a start! The neighboring community (7 miles away) had over 100 participants turn out for their Turkey Trot and I would like to think that some were from here. I feel that if there was an event in town, giving proceeds to a local cause, the community would show its support and get behind it. This is why I am already starting to think about/plan next year’s EVENT!
For me, here is what it comes down to: Sometimes, when you can’t find exactly what it is you are looking for – you simply need to create it yourself!
While I learned from cooking Thanksgiving dinner that I am in no way a Domestic Goddess, maybe next year I could take the title of Race Director?
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You rock Melissa.
'Nuf said.
Well there is this crazy/awesome chick that sets a really good example for the rest of us!