Thanksgiving 2011

Tim Galloway & Larry Moffatt awarding Albert Mesarosh

Good morning! That was a nice, long weekend! Now the reality of a new routine is making its presence known. More about that in a little while. First, how 'bout we recap a little about things since we last met?

The Give Thanks 4 went really well! The weather was different than forecast, but it was actually pretty good running weather. We had 129 finishers, and Kyle Stansbury, a former student of mine, won. He's a really good young man in many areas, including running. We had a great awards ceremony. The highlight of that was giving Albert Mesarosh the Albert Mesorosh Long Run Award for a lifetime of running achievements. This will now be an annual award given to someone who has run a long time and accomplished a lot.

Here's a sample of Albert's career, compiled by Tim Galloway. This is from 1992, when Albert was 54 years old:

Jan 19 Frosty 5K 22.21
Feb 22 Vincennes 10 miler 79.13
Apr 4 Spring Fever 5K 22.46
Apr 12 Glass City Marathon 4.03.54
Apr 18 Fitness Challenge 5K 21.37
Apr 25 Louisville Half marathon 1.43.17
May 2 Crane Half marathon 1.45.01
May 23 WRV 5K 21.30
May 31 Phil Harris 5K 21.29
Jun 6 Sunburst Marathon 3.44.08
Jun 27 Limestone 5K 20.32
Jul 4 Madison 10K 41.25
Aug 1 Owensburg 5K 21.35
Aug 9 Morgan Monroe 10 miler 79.06
Aug 29 Watermelon 5K 21.13
Sep 5 Summerfest 5K 20.17
Sep19 Toledo 24 hour run 85 miles
Sep 26 Persimmon 5K 21.29
Oct 4 Celestine 5K 21.25
Oct 11 Columbus Marathon 3.43.45
Oct 18 Louisville Marathon 3.44.20
Oct 25 Chicago Marathon 3.48.51
Nov 1 Columbus 50K 4.53.19
Dec 5 Kentucky 50 miler 9.52.00

This is really amazing stuff, especially toward the end of the year, where he ran 3 marathons in a row, followed by 50K (31+miles) and then a 50 miler! Before all that he ran 85 miles in a 24 hour run. Albert is 73 and still runs! I asked Larry Moffatt and Tim Galloway to present the award, since they know Albert better and have run with him over the years. They did an excellent job. Albert received a nice, long standing ovation from the appreciative crowd. Well deserved!

After the race, we had a nice family gathering at our house. Lester and Maddie then joined us on Friday evening, so we had all my kids together. It was my 53rd birthday, and the best gift was having all of my children around. I had to fight sadness when they all left yesterday afternoon, but I was thankful to have the time with them.

It's going to be a good week! Time to catch up, reorganize, and move onto the next thing. We have a new routine developing. Ben has weight-lifting at 6.15 a.m. now, so we are all adjusting to that. He does not get his license until February. I don't mind running him into town for this. I want him to really bulk up and become all he can as a football player. That's his passion.

Watch for another post a little later on today: 26.2.