Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The Conqueror - December 2015

Welcome to the first edition of The Conqueror, monthly newsletter of the Somerville Road Runners!


Announcements


Toe the Line: December Races

December 6: Mill Cities Relay
  • SRR sent 22 teams to the 32nd Annual Mill Cities Relay, a 27-mile relay through five cities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. SRR was third overall and brought home eight of the coveted bricks! Thanks to Brendan Kearney, John Gorvin, Gretchen Wilson, and Brian Cullinan for organizing this effort! Look for a full race recap in our January edition.

December 13: Cambridge 5k Yulefest
  • Registration for Yulefest is now closed, but you can still cheer on 46 of your SRR teammates who will be running. Click the link above for race/course information.

Boston Marathon Invitational Number Process and Deadline

  • The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) has again invited Somerville Road Runners to participate in the Boston Marathon Invitational Number Program and has granted 10 numbers to SRR members to run the marathon on Monday, April 18th, 2016. To be considered for a number, you must have been a member for one full year and you must be a current member for 2016. Please note that the deadline for all applications is at midnight on Wednesday, December 9. For more information, please reference the instructional email sent to all club members or contact president@srr.org.

Membership Renewal Reminder - Save $5!
  • It’s that time of year - don’t forget to update your SRR membership! Use this link to join or renew. Enter code SAVE5 to save $5 if you renew or join by midnight on December 31. Want to know more about membership benefits? Spoiler alert: there are many! Check out our FAQs.

USATF Grand Prix Slate Selection - Vote Now!
  • If you are a member of USATF New England, the slate for 2016 is available for voting through December 8th at noon.  Please note our club race, An Ras Mor, is one of the contenders! Review the slates here, and cast your vote here.
Holiday Fun at Casey's Ugly Sweater Run
  • Join us for a very special holiday edition of our Thursday night Casey’s run! On Thursday, December 17, be sure to wear your ugliest/tackiest/most festive holiday sweater for the run. Meet at Casey’s at 173 Broadway, Somerville, at 7pm.

Save the Dates!
  • SRR Wintah Challenge - Sunday, January 10th
  • SRR Annual Post-Holiday Bash - Friday, January 22


SRR News


SRR Kids Program Concludes Successful 5th Season


On November 8, 2015, 28 young runners took part in the Boston River Run 5k at the culmination of the 5th season of the SRR Kids youth running program. SRR Kids, founded in August 2013 and run entirely by SRR volunteers, is a free community-based non-competitive running program for kids in kindergarten through grade 6. The purpose of this program is to encourage children to think of running as fun, and instill in them a healthy, active lifestyle to carry through their entire lives. Each season consists of weekly practices and ends with a fun 5K race. For more information about SRR Kids, visit http://www.srr.org/kids/. If you’re an SRR member and want to help out as a coach or pacer in the future, please email kids@srr.org.

SRR Kids at the Boston River Run 5k [photo: Jenn Fonda]


19th Annual Gobble Gobble Gobble Raises over $35k for Local Charities

Happy Thanksgiving! [photo: Pensri Pilotte]

Three thousand runners kicked off their Thanksgiving Day festivities by running in SRR’s Gobble Gobble Gobble 4-mile Thanksgiving Day Race. A time-honored tradition, the Gobble Gobble Gobble is not only a fun race for family and friends - it is also a great cause, with a majority of proceeds going to Project Soup and Somerville Track PAC. We are incredibly thankful for our running community and grateful for the opportunity to give back. Special thanks to our sponsors Marathon Sports, Harvard Vanguard and the Burren, and most of all to our volunteers - we couldn’t do it without you!

Race Recap: Sun-Tzu and the Art of Cross-Country

Five years ago this past August, I ran the Bridge of Flowers 10K out in Sherbourne Falls. ...That night I went out and I bought two packs of cigarettes. They were the last two packs I ever bought.” Read more about SRR member Jesse Morrow’s journey to improvement and glory at the 2015 USATF Cross-Country Grand Prix here: http://globalcyclist.blogspot.com/2015/11/sun-tzu-and-art-of-cross-country-ne.html


Quote of the month


“Running is not, as it so often seems, only about what you did in your last race or about how many miles you ran last week. It is, in a much more important way, about community, about appreciating all the miles run by other runners, too.” - Richard O’Brien


Happy Running!