Salem, Oregon's
Running & Walking Club Site
Home of
Willamette Valley Road Runners (WVRR)
www.WVRoadrunners.org.

APATHY by Ron Hartwig

     For some time I have been planning on writing an article on the Striders and apathy. Somehow it took so long to get to this that the Striders are no more. I guess it is appropriate.

     I was going to write about how the club's momentum and energy level seems to have waned, about how we no longer get all our members involved in relays, about how our recruitment efforts have fizzled and about how we seem to have deserted the walkers in our club.

     But I was too late. It seems our lethargic group has combined with a smaller lethargic group in the hope that in larger numbers something good will happen. I hope so.

     In the event that there now is renewed enthusiasm to do more for the running community I offer the following projects that I was going to suggest to the Striders. I am one of those people who believe that it is in doing not talking that demonstrates our value to the community.

     I suggest three projects. The first is to redo the mile markers for the five-mile Homestead loop at Minto. Some of the posts are still there but the mile markers are missing. This would be helpful for those people who want to know their distance and pace. The second is to develop for Minto a card like the one John Gallagher put together for Highway 22. It could be different in that it could show specific distances. Examples would be the distance from the Governor's Cup to parking lot one via the gravel road, the distance via South River Road, the distance to parking lot two via the road and via the river loop, etc. This would allow people to plan their runs with a specific distance in mind.

     My last suggestion is for us to adopt the Leukemia Society marathon program as a group project. It is embarrassing to be at Gallagher's and listen to a presentation on the Leukemia Society's Team In Training program and be told that in Portland they have trainers and people to run with. They should be able to find trainers in Salem and our group could provide leadership in group runs.

     It will be interesting to see if the clubs have renewed enthusiasm. While driving to the Governor's Cup this past Sunday I saw several runners I was not familiar with. I wonder if any of them had even heard of our group. Perhaps in the future we can recapture the enthusiasm that created the Striders.