Fall Season Week 18

I discovered it wasn't a matter of physical strength, but a matter of psychological strength. The conquest lay within my own mind to penetrate those barriers of self-imposed limitations and get through to good stuff- the stuff called potential, 90 percent of which we rarely use. - Sharon Wood, First North American Woman to Climb Mt. Everest

Fundraising Tip
Send a press release to your contacts in the media regarding your training and your upcoming event.

Training Tip
Race Strategy: Getting it right the first time

By John "Penguin" Bingham



One of the most important things you, as a participant, can do as race day approaches is to develop a race strategy. Spending some time thinking and planning can make the difference between having a great time and having the longest day of your life.

Developing a race strategy requires you to look honestly and your training and their overall readiness for the race. Second, it requires you to define your goals and look at them realistically and third, it will give you something against which you can gauge your race as it's happening.

You need three race day strategies:

Plan A would be one where everything went perfectly; you sleep well the night before the race, you wake up feeling rested and refreshed, the day is perfect and you've brought exactly the right clothes.


Plan B would be the one where you show up with most of what you need, you manage to get in a few hours of restless sleep, you wake up grumpy, the forecast is for the chance of rain with the possibility of blistering sun or hail. Its 29 degrees at the start but it's suppose to get to the mid 90's by noon.


Plan C, the "doomsday scenario" strategy is where your luggage was lost and you had to buy everything new at the race expo, you didn't sleep a wink because there was a wedding reception in the room next door, you wake up feeling hung over even though you didn't drink a drop, it's cold and damp or it's Death Valley hot and dry, the wind-chill index is 60 degrees below zero or the heat index is 140 degrees and the race starts an hour and a half late.


There is no right strategy. There is only YOUR strategy. But, it is important that you develop SOME KIND OF strategy. You don't want to see all of your hard work and training fall apart because you failed to have a strategy.

You Need to Know Before You Go
1. Your goals, strategy, and objectives have to work together
2. Be prepared to change your goals on race day
3. Be prepared to change your goals as the race unfolds
4. Keep your objectives firmly in your mind
5. If you can't be well prepared, be well rested
6. There is no such thing as the perfect race
7. Imagining a race is not the same as running/walking it
8. A bad strategy is worse than no strategy


Mission Moment
Amy Griffin Grady
Zebulon, NC
Living with CML for 1 year, 5 months
Age: 31

I'm 30 years old and have Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Most days I'm scared to death and try to just make it through the day. I just started working and feel a little better.