Welcome to the 100th WOTW
My name – K.C. Brett
Age – 55
Occupation – Retired
Happily Married 25 years to – Mary
Daughter – Amanda age 22
When Lou asked me to take this week, he knew I wouldn’t be able to pass up the 100th WOTW, after finishing the last two years on New Year’s Eve with my hundredth Hill run. A little OCD never hurt anyone, did it?
I’ve always considered myself a runner, when I was in elementary school I had older cousins and a bother running in the high school and jr. high, so that was what I was going to do also.
I ran cross country and spring track in jr. high, and cross country, winter track and spring track in high school. I did pretty well, held a couple of school records for a while.
After my freshman season of cross country, I was inducted into the varsity club. This was a big deal because no freshman had ever been let in before this. Being a part of this club had advantages and disadvantages, most of the club members were seniors and that’s who I found myself hanging around with. The disadvantage to this was that I caught senioritis as a freshman, and carried it for the rest of my high school career. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun, but probably should had remained a little more serious about school and running. As an actual senior my school day was over by 10am, so I went to work after that, which meant I gave up my last two seasons of running. I still graduated with 10 varsity letters (it would have been nice to be able to say 12, but we live with our choices).
After high school I took a little break from running (thirty years). In spring of 2008 my daughter, at this time a freshman in the same high school I went to, comes home from school and tells us about a 5k that they are having. The funds raised would go to scholarships, so I said to myself “I can do that” (I’m a runner, right?). When I showed up, wearing sweats, I saw some old friends from cross country warming up before the race. All I wanted to do was finish, which I did (barely).
A few weeks later two guys, in their 20’s, that I worked with were taunting one another about a 5k they were going to run in Center Moriches, so again I said to myself and them “I can do this.” I ended up finishing between the two of these kids and three minutes faster than the 5k I ran a month before. Then the thoughts started (imagine if I practiced, I might really be able to run again). That summer I started to run again, lost 40lbs, stopped taking blood pressure and reflux meds, and took another 4 minutes off my 5k time.
Two years later I’m at a race in Bayport, not really knowing too many people, and this guy comes over and starts talking to me about GLIRC (enter Lou LaFleur). About a year after that he talks me into meeting him to run a couple of Hills in Selden. As you may or may not know, I’ve become very fond of these Hills (thank you Lou).
This little group consisted of about 12 people when Lou first invited me to join them, now there are over 700 of us and we are still growing. We have become known as the place where everyone is welcome no matter how fast or how slow. The place where anyone can come and achieve their goals whether it be to run a marathon, a 5k, or just to feel good about themselves.
Me personally, I’ve run with, and gotten to know a lot of you through the group runs, and there are still a lot that I haven’t had the pleasure to get to know “YET.” I am proud to show up at a race wearing my SELDEN HILLS shirt, and I’m rarely alone on the starting line (usually only out of state).
When Lou mentioned Warrior of the Week, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to be Warrior of the Month at the same time, and then I got really crazy and thought how about going for the monthly mileage record. So here we are, I hope I didn’t bore you all too much. Now let’s have some fun this week.
K.C.