Saturday was the Retro Run and true to tradition it rained about an hour before just in time to turn this annual run/street party into a steam bath. Not sure I've ever seen as many good runners walking during the late stages as I did Saturday. So you can just guess how many 'newbies' were struggling, just to finish. On the other hand a bunch of runners had an 'Aha'! moment and said to themselves, "Self, it's hot so I'm gonna start nice and easy and get into a groove." That includes yours truly. That night I was doing my Gretchen Wilson imitation, I was just there for the party. Had a good run, had fun, waved, enjoyed myself and still sweated like a farmer on plow day. A bunch of terrific costumes, but not all were 'retro', I saw a running Rubik's Cube, a lady with a boom box and Rainbow Brite. Shilonqua's "Super Fly' girlfriend complete with a real 'Fro and one of Charlie's Angels. One guy (yep, guy!) ran in a females flowered 1 piece swim suit and bathing cap! Okay, so now instead of the Retro Run, it was a drag race. This mornings run was pretty nice, the sunrise was magnificent and it stayed reasonably comfortable until after I finished running (8:30 ish), so not bad at all. I spent yesterday at UAB giving talks to a group of Type II diabetic people in a study. It seems they sometimes lack motivation to continue (or to start) their exercise program. Like Scooby Doo says, "Ruh?!?". "Sir/Ma'am (actually 4 times as many women as men in there!!), you need to exercise >30 minutes a day or you're going to die......soon!" That would motivate ME, I'm jus sayin'......So we talked about TANGIBLE goals (this program encourages 200 minutes a week of exercise/movement) and having an 'Action Plan' to not only achieve 200 minutes but to exceed 200 minutes a week. It was an interesting experience and the program is quite successful...until Dan here set 'em back yesterday. It wasn't one of my prepared speeches, I spoke a lot off the cuff pointing to the benefit of having a 'real' goal (specifically walking a 5K), and then working towards that goal. Focusing on the walk (run) each day, not tomorrow, not next week, but TODAY'S effort. If they do that, the 5K's not so intimidating, and when it does come into focus it won't seem insurmountable. It'll be just another walk, except that it'll have SUCCESS written all over the finish line (figuratively speaking). And my suggestion to them if/when they had doubts was simple....2 questions: Why not? Why not me? Some one says you can't do something think, why not? Why not me? Heck! Go get 'em Tiger! (Not Tiger Woods, that's what got him IN trouble was going to 'get' em.....Tiger in 'general'). Think about that when you doubt if you can achieve anything, a new distance, a new PR, even something at work....Why not? Why not ME? Why not, indeed!!!!