Inspiration... Samantha Coleby

April 12th, Sunday morning. For some, it is Easter time. For others, like my roomies, it is sleepy time (Matilda and Sophia were out until 4am:)). And, for me, it is 'track' time!

I was up at 8am, had my coffee, spent some time on the internet and was at the Costa Del Sol stadium by 10am.

Surprise surprise! The Stadium was full of junior athletes from northern Europe (Great Britain, Norway, and Finland) who came down to Spain to train for the European championship that is coming up. As I try to make my way through the sporty-chaos, I got stopped by one of the coaches from G. Britain, Travis.

He asked me to stay in iether lane #1 or #6 since one of his runners is running #4 with hurdles. Unless, he said, you want to run hurdles with her! Ha ha ha I just smiled and said #6 looks Grrrreat to me :))

One lap around the track and he starts stopping me on and off to ask if I was a runner and where I came from and so on... One thing led to another and I found out he's coaching Great Britain's #1 junior girl in 400m with hurdles!!! Holy cow, I said!

...I watched her run, in awe!! She was awesome! and, I asked Travis if I could meet her! And so I did...

Her name is: Samantha Coleby. She is 18 years old, Great Britain's #1 junior - and still, so humble and shy. Her parents, Max and Julie, were there as well, both marathon runners. I spent some 30 min chatting with them about different sports events, people we knew, and among others, we talked about Jeff Galloway! They knew him.
(And for all of you who do not know Jeff Galloway - he run on the same team with Steve Prefontain (and,"Pre" is Michael Jordan for runners)! Jeff and Steve were buddies... Jeff Galloway is a US Olympian runner).

www.jeffgalloway.com

I had an opportunity to run the Athens Marathon in 2007 in Greece with Jeff Galloway and his wife Barbara!! Along with my dad, of course :)))


Anyway, it turns out that if Samantha wins a local British event end of April, she will represent GB in Novi Sad, Serbia this July at a Junior Championship for Europe!!

We exchanged emails and promised to keep in contact... we might actually see each other again in Serbia in July! They asked if they could visit my home and meet my parents (see Novi Sad with us) and I said 'but of course! it will be our pleasure!'
I also got invited to stay (and train with them) in London! :))

Both of her parents are well recognized and experienced marathon runners. Her mother was one of the first women to run the Big City marathons when they started popping up in the 70's... Greece, Tokyo, U.S.A., GB.

AND, this is exactly what is so GREAT about traveling (and why I love it so much!) -- there's nothing like connecting with people from around the world through common interests and feeling that you are a part of a bigger place and not just the city you currently live in (or, the city you are from).


.....I also wanted to share a couple of articles by Kenny Moore (Sports Illustrated) that was recommended to me by Max (who actually knows Kenny Moore!):
It made my day!!! Thank you, Max!!!

http://www.kennymoore.us/kcmarticles/Chasing%20Justice.pdf