The 2nd of Barb Filutze's 8 great Mondays Runner's Training Program at drew another big crowd last night, despite the steamy weather (which was, of course, not as steamy by the lake).

Participants filled (and spilled out) of the Cookhouse Pavilion to hear Barb, the guest speaker -- chiropractor Dr. Dan Young and the veteran runner -- last night it was me.

Barb addressed injuries last night. How to spot them, how to prevent them and how to treat them. Then, Dr. Young gave a really great talk on common sports injuries and the muscles that runners are most likely to injure.

Dr. Young's presentation was great -- he's an enthusiastic and engaging speaker. He even hauled one participant up on the picnic table to demonstrate the proper way to do deep tissue massage (it hurts, but...it is oh soooo good and necessary for injury-free running). All the stretching in the world won't help you out if you have knots in your legs. The knots can be pushed out with deep tissue massage.

Dr. Young was on-hand all night to answer participant's questions. He had quite a line all evening -- he was still there when I left at 8:15 p.m.. He was, at that time, helping a woman who was crying because she had been through years of being "treated" for tendonitis which Dr. Young was telling her was probably not really tendonitis and his on-the-spot treatments were already having an effect on her pain. She was in tears because she'd been so frustrated by the "treatments" and other doctors had told her to stop walking/running. (This, dear readers, is why runners make the best doctors for runners).

I was this week's "veteran runner" and Barb asked me to speak about my experience and how I got started running. So, I did my dog-and-pony show and talked about how I went from being a 180 lbs. smoker who never exercised to a 120-some pound woman who runs marathons. If you haven't heard my story before, you can download my speech from last night here. Download file

I brought some handouts on ways to stay motivated -- just some tips I, myself, use and some that I mined from the web. You can download that handout here. Download file

If you've thought about going to the training program -- Mondays at 6 p.m. at the Presque Isle Cookhouse -- it's not too late. You can still sign up...just come to the next one (and, remember, it's free).