Team Point Two... Point Five

I'm not sure how many people John Ellis has coached by email before me but I suspect not many, so his invitation meant a lot to me. Not long after the time we spent together working toward my spring marathon in 2008 he came up with the idea of coaching a small group of people who had already run a marathon and see if he could improve their performance. He called the idea "Team Point Two".

The meaning of the name mostly came from the miles in a marathon. The forgotten and oft overlooked two tenths of a mile at it's end. Ask someone who has never run a marathon how long it is and the most accurate answer you will get is "26 miles". Ask the same question to someone who has actually run one and they are sure to include that 1/5 of a mile or 26 point 2.

So when John was looking to put the "team" together I was one of the first he asked, and I accepted. The only condition was that I be willing to document my training and experience via a blog, a podcast or some other social media thing. The only thing I really lacked was a Twitter or Facebook account. Easy enough to rectify.

But then we hit a leee-ttle bump in the road because John also wanted the "2" to represent a second try at a marathon. Sacramento would be my fourth, as I reminded him, and so he came back to me with "oh too bad, you would have been perfect". So I was out before I was ever in. But John graciously agreed to coach me anyway, which I have written about often here.

So the training cycle came and went and frankly I think I would have added something to the whole concept. The people who were eventually asked were great, the group became close and goals were met, but I sense as an outsider that despite the successes, the potential of the project was never really met. The team's website (http://teampointtwo.blogspot.com/) hasn't been updated since last spring and many of the runners have dropped off updating their logs since running their events in the fall. I honestly think I would have brought something to the team if I would have had the chance-at least from a promotional sense. As I have stated here so many times, running and training is less about the numbers and more about living the life of someone on a journey of self exploration.

But after my qualifying at the CIM John was suddenly keen on the idea of me being involved in the wrap up podcast for the team! Hmm, imagine that! Suddenly I'd become "team worthy" to borrow an idea from Seinfeld. So I agreed, thinking it would be fun to tell my marathon story.

So last Wednesday night after work I did the show called "Runner's Roundtable". Steve, who sometimes hosts the show (he hosts Phedippidations all the time) had said during the our set up when the team members were phoning into the conference call that I would tell my story after the rest of the team. When John Ellis called into the "room" just moments before it started he changed it up and asked me to go first. No problem really, I wouldn't have any chance to "warm up", but that was okay. The only thing was I had no idea how the "conversation" would work and instead of asking about the marathon, John asked me about the running relationship with Randy. Totally not prepared for that!!!

I had thought about what I would say regarding John's help with training and about the race itself, but had not given any brain cells to talking about running with Randy. So I babbled, hemmed and hawed and eventually crashed and burned, and Steve, sensing that I'm a shitty interview, just moved on quickly. Smart man. I sucked.

Towards the end they came back to me, briefly asking about future plans, and I did better the second time working with a question I had anticipated would be asked. All in all it worked out but I would have liked to told my race story.

John will likely form another team later this year and if he does maybe I'll be asked to join it and, if it even happens, maybe I'll make the cut! It would be kinda fun and I would have an excuse to get Twitter or Facebook accounts. We'll see.

http://runnersroundtablepodcast.blogspot.com/