There are many positive aspects of this Boomer and Beyond forum association.

1. Learning from each other....being able to ask questions
2. Encouraging other runners when they are needing it
3. Sharing our running stories
4. Accountability of miles and goals....staying on target
5. Reading race reports and learning from them
6. Friendships that develop between us
7. Reading about various life situations of others
8. The occasion jokes, pranks, etc in the daily threads
9. Racing
10. Meeting other Boomer runners

One of the surprise fun aspects for me has been the occasions when I have been able to meet others who are on this web site, at races during the year. It is always fun to put a "face" to the names we have in here.

I think all of us were wishing we could have been at Boston, either to run or even to be a part of the support group along the Marathon route. The other associated meals for that group was made extra special just because there were "several" of our group there.

Here is my thought here.......

It would be fun to TARGET various race locations as official Boomer meetings. This would vary from year to year so that hopefully a targeted race would be near you at one time or another. There seems to be natural "pockets" of runners where there already exists a number of our group and these can be built upon. My thoughts here are to target ONE race a year and give it this special identity. Then as many as possible could plan to attend.

Right now I see good target locations coming from:
1) New England
2) Central East Coast (VA, NC, TN)
3) Pacific Northwest (including BC)
4) Canada Central (ON, PQ)
5) Midwest (MI, OH, IN, IL)

Anytime we have 5 Boomers registered for a race location, this has the potential for a good gathering. Right now there are 5 races on the race board where this exists:
1) Crim .....................Flint,MI....Aug 25.....7 registered
2) Bellingham Bay......Wash......Oct 7....... 6 registered
3) Hartford Mar......... .Conn.......Oct 13..... 7 registered
4) ING...................... NYC....... Nov 4....... 5 registered
5) Richmond............. VA......... Nov 11...... 5 registered

History says that Boston, Chicago, and Knoxville will also have a good number of us register when the time comes.

It would be fun to attempt to have a support table on the race route (like the good people in Boston did) for any race where there are significant numbers of Boomers running.

There are neat things that can be done when someone in the local area does some preparations as host. Pie Jones went "beyond the call of duty" in Knoxville to give those of us attending that race a wonderful experience. I know others do similar things in other locations as well.

To identify in the daily thread when a race location has reached a registration of 5 of our people will help us in planning, and I intend to do that.

I simply wanted to throw these thoughts out. Give me feed back, your suggestions, your thoughts, etc. I don't want to make this a huge responsibility on anybody, but instead would like to organize our forum in this area to make our friendships stronger and our race schedules even more meaningful.


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http://This message has been edited by vista129 (edited Jul-14-2007).