GWTC FEMALE 2006 RUNNER OF THE YEAR

Good evening everyone! It is really a pleasure to be here tonight with all of you.
Due to the busy lives that many of us lead today, what with work, family, and other obligations people take upon themselves, so many have little time, if any at all, for learning or teaching. The definition of “learn” is “to gain knowledge, comprehension, or mastery of (a subject) through experience or study.”

The Female Runner of the Year I am introducing started to learn the skill of good running in her high school years and she continues to be a student of the sport with a good deal of reading on it combined with observation of other runners. She also continues her learning experience by participating; and it is evidenced by the improvement she has made prior to and since she joined Gulf Winds. It certainly doesn’t hurt that she obviously is naturally talented at it!

The definition of “teach” is to “impart knowledge or skill… to cause to learn by example or experience.” Being the generous and kind person that I have come to know her as, she takes what she learns and gives it freely to others, becoming a teacher, without regard to status, skill level, or age. She can be found at most of the events, usually running but at times helping. She also has been known to assist with high school level running events and passes what she is learning on to us as a group through her regular writings in the Fleet Foot.

What an example she is! She first appeared on the scene here at last spring’s Palace Saloon 5K and was 3rd female overall with a 5K time of 19:20- incidentally she had listed Gainesville as her hometown at that time, although she had done a brief stint up north. Being the unselfish and self sacrificing individual that she is, by coming here she has forgone running in wonderful northern events with titles like Brave the Blizzard 5K, the Frozen Feet 5K, this past June the Red Dress Run, where the Binghamton NY area gets to show off its ugly women or men who like to run in dresses (the decent looking women run too), and in October, she missed out on the Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon; future race directors, are you listening out there?! Although she did do pretty well in the January Freeze 10K series up there a year ago.

After the Palace, she went on to be 3rd female in the Rose City 10K, 1st female in the 4 mile potluck, 3rd female at St. George, 2nd only to Sarah Doctor-Williams at breakfast on the track with a time of 5:19:22 (compare that to her regular time of just over 6 minutes in July of 2005- yes I did my homework) and since then she was 1st female in Women’s Distance Festival with a 5K PR of 18:35, the Pine Run 20K, the Boston Mini Marathon, the 15K distance of the Turkey Trot, and the 10 Mile Challenge. What an incredible record for the year! She also did us proud in two events in Jacksonville being 3rd female in the 5 mile Beach Run and 3rd female in the recent Jacksonville Marathon with a time of 3:00:55, showing great improvement from her 13th female placement one year before. My wish is for her continued enthusiasm, good sportsmanship, good health, happiness and a good showing at the Boston Marathon this spring!

I am so pleased and privileged to introduce to you the Gulf Winds Track Club Female Runner of 2006, my friend and running “teacher,” Sheryl Rosen.