It was warm and humid as Jim Myers, John Domico, Judd Michael, Jim Moore, Bob Cornwall, Costas Maranas, Andrew Webb, Tara Murray, Tim Aydin, Rich Harter, Jonathan Thurley, Michael Goldfine, Rob Shaver, Dana Todd, Jim Laudermilch, Matt Soccio, Mark Traband, and Marty Mazur headed for the track. There was a definite dearth of girls today, so some of the guys were engaging in locker room talk at the head of the pack. Bwana, a few steps ahead, and hard of hearing, thought they were talking about him, given his reputation as a clever and "cunning linguist". But, no, that's not what they were talking about. Seriously, guys, not so loud, especially when we're running past the Creamery where there's a bunch of school kids on a field trip!
At the track, the conversation switched focus to something one of the gals in the Crew is really good at: librarianship. The Crew had just gotten the word that Hill Queen Tara Murray would soon no longer be doing Thursday Track workouts, or any other lunch time runs. Tara has taken a job as the head librarian at the American Philatelic Society in Bellefonte. She starts in mid-July. Now, you may ask, what is philately? Well, one of our famous Democratic Presidents benefited deeply from it, and he probably engaged the help of an aide or two. When Tara quizzed Bwana on philately, he immediately thought of Bill Clinton. No! Not 'philandering'! And not that other word that starts with 'ph' or 'f' or something! Time to get the ears checked, Bwana. No, instead of licking us old guys at the track and on the hills, Tara is moving on and will be helping even older guys lick their hinges at the HQ of the national organization for stamp collectors. Soft-spoken Tara will have to get used to speaking much louder than she does in our group. I think the average stamp collector these days is an 83 year-old male. (The POTUS stamp collector, by the way, was FDR)
Bwana gave Tara her Thursday Track Crew exit debriefing. (It's OK. Tara's mOUnTaiNBACK experience has made her an expert at debriefings.) Of course, girl trackers are always required to recruit at least one more female before they can leave. And of course, Tara's move up will mean a promotion as well for Meira Minard to Tuesday Hill Queen. And we'll have to organize a Creamery Run for both Tara and for Greg Fredericks, who will be retiring soon. Just, guys, when you get to the Creamery, keep it clean!
Bwana had the Crew do the Fortitude workout, 4X(400-200) with only 100m rest between the 4 and the 2. It took a while to get in the groove because of the heat, and we were licked after that one.
Enough roasting Ms. T. It's not like she's moving to the moon. We'll see her on weekend runs, at races, and of course, at the mOUnTaiNBACK. So who gets cyber-slammed today? Well, Bwana may need a hearing aid, but John Sheakoski needs an email aid. He read an email wrong and stayed at work for a noon phone-con (who schedules a noon phone con?), sucking in his minion Rob Peterson as well. It turned out it was a phone-con at noon Pacific time. (Still, who schedules a noon phone-con?) And ultra-blond ultra Kathy Koetje-Simins beeped at Bwana as he lumbered back to Rec Hall and gave her lame excuse about having done a slow run instead. Instead? What do you think we were doing at the track?