LifeSouth's Chronic Ghosting About its "Race Weekend"

 For my daily existence following the big diagnosis, exercise into Zone One is an important activity.  However, in rocking forward and backward simultaneously on my feet, I don't think that in doing so I am making it easier to run stretches of races, such as the Parkrun 5Ks.  Only actually getting out there and taking the steps will help me in this regard.  With winter almost here, I am also keenly aware of the seasonal time pressure to take advantage of the sparse opportunities offered for meaningful long distance races.  Several years ago I had as racing options the January Ocala Marathon/Half Marathon...they're long gone, sadly.  The LifeSouth Five Points of Life long distance events were consistently held from 2006 to 2020...until COVID hit and ruined everything.  When they resumed in 2022 with a half-marathon, the low number of entrants apparently disappointed the organizers and the non-profit blood-donation organization enough for them to stop holding it.  Only they never announced that the races were over, and didn't respond to queries about this decision.  That's called ghosting, and it's a highly disrespectful, deliberate breach in communication.  Earlier this year I had discussed with my cardiologist possibly going back to donating blood to LifeSouth...I'm O+, the "universal donor" designation, with my cardiologist.  But because of the medications he has me on, his answer was squarely "NO".  So when LifeSouth pestered me with another annoying plea for blood donation, I replied with my medical explanation.  No response.  Then I wrote them how I felt about their "race Weekend" cancellation and their refusal to be up-front and candid about it.  No response.  Hey, you bloodies, you can stop holding your running events, and I'll be disappointed but still supportive, if only you just make the expected announcements.  Now I'm seeing stuff on the Internet about how the Five Points marathon.half-marathon has been announced without any sign of detail regarding the February 2026 dates and sign-up information.  My take is that they're (expletive deleted) on us, or ghosting, and that they'll let the anticipated "race weekends" pass by with no communication from them. Yet they will still continue to harass me with accusatory emails and text messages emphasizing that (MY) desperately needed blood donations to them aren't just the most important thing: they're the only thing!  Well, with quickly fading hopes of getting some information about a potential Five Points Gainesville race in February, I went to my YouTube account and searched for information.  The answer directed me to a channel run by ultramarathoner Wes Plate.  Now I like ultramarathon runners like Dean Karanazes who are upbeat about promoting their sport: I like to hear their stories.  Plate's video was 8 minutes long, giving him plenty of time to mention LifeSouth and what their intentions were.  Only he did nothing of the kind, and all I got was a discussion of ultramarathon races to come, including a 300K event (180 miles) in steamy Tennessee.  Plate's video saddened me, and in my own state of medical health I don't see myself training up to being able to cover distances in excess of a marathon (26.2 miles) length.  The Florida Track Club Marathon next month to me is a dud event, and I resent the organizers' half-assed time restriction of six hours beyond which they reserve the right to refuse to time and post for entrants who are on the slower side of that figure.  My idea and estimation of public racing have greatly shrunk over the last two or three years, with LifeSouth going into Ghost Mode (aka giving us the Finger) and Florida Track Club dropping the ball, marginalizing runners and walkers while pampering those they regard as "elite".  And the non-profit side of FTC, along with its president, clearly holds aging people like me, fighting cancer and with diminishing athletic abilities, in contempt.  Well, ghosting can be a two-way street... 

Ran Gainesville's Season of Hope 15K This Morning

I like traditions in running races and get a little sad when I see one end.  One tradition that is still continuing is the Season of Hope 15K/5K race in early December...I've run the 15K (9.3 miles) race now four times.  Organized to benefit Tyler's Hope, a non-profit organization for research into the movement disorder called dystonia and help for those so afflicted, it takes place on the Hawthorne Trail in southeastern Gainesville, starting and finishing where the trail passes by Boulware Springs Park (off SE 15th Street).  I ran speed-walked an extended version of the same course last month with the Florida Track Club's Tom Walker Half-marathon, so I'm familiar with all the slopes and hilliness it provides.  The temperature here at sunrise had spiked downward to freezing but had risen by 9:00 race time to the low forties...by the race's end it had gotten into the low fifties...all with low humidity.  On the way to the race my car horn got stuck under the frozen conditions and I had to pull off the road to try to turn it off.  Eventually it shut itself up and I made it to Boulware Springs Park, only to discover that it was already packed because of another race using its facilities at the same time: Girls on the Run 5K.  The organization Girls on the Run is very positive and uplifting for school-age girls, and one thing they do regularly is hold a 5K run...only today it competed head-on with the Seasons of Hope event I had signed up for.  Once I parked, though, I eased my way through the unexpected crowd of humanity there and did my race without any problem.  Although my left Achilles tendon...which had seemed a little sore a few days ago...seemed to ache early on, I kept with my plan to alternate nine-minutes of running with one minute of speed-walking while also speed-walking up the steepest up-slopes.  This worked to perfection, and being able to listen to my favorite songs on my Amazon Music service helped as well.  I kept to my racing strategy until after about six miles when I decided to just run out the remainder of the race, hills and all.  I finished at 1 hour 29 minutes 19 seconds...some four minutes faster than last year's time and my fastest 15K finish since 2015.  Click HERE to see the race results. As with the marathon I did a couple of weeks ago, I had no problem with running low on energy...the low temperature again helped as well.  As for that Girls on the Run organization, I thought it was sweet how they staged volunteers up and down the course to cheer on their runners...they cheered for us "Season of Hope" runners as well!  I hope the Tyler's Hope organization continues this fine racing tradition and I wish Girls on the Run great success in the future...I just wish they can align their event scheduling better next time around...

Walked Against Breast Cancer This Morning

The organization American Cancer Society, with its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer fundraisers, held a fund-raising walk this pretty Saturday morning at Celebration Pointe on the southwestern outskirts of Gainesville.  My dear wife Melissa, a survivor who has just completed her treatments after a successful tumor removal in May, formed a walking team, "Team Irwin", consisting of her, me, our wonderful daughter Rebecca, and some of Melissa's work associates and students.  Lots of folks were there as we swamped the closed roads, normally abuzz with motorized traffic.  If you're interested in making a donation to this fine effort, you can click HERE for more information...  

A Little Gripe about a Local Non-Profit

It's been my experience that it's a losing proposition to criticize non-profit organizations, especially the ones that are directly connected to physically improving...even to the point of saving...people's lives.  Still, I feel the need to call out Life South, a locally based blood bank that has sponsored and organized Gainesville's wonderful Five Points of Life dual marathon/half-marathon races annually during the month of February.  From 2010 through 2022 I ran in six of the half-marathons: great, memorable experiences and each of which I wrote about on this blog.  According to Life South's own website a few years ago (but removed since), one afternoon back around 2005 a couple of Life South employees took a break from work and jogged the few blocks down Newberry Road to the nearby Starbucks (now a Relish restaurant), where Marty Bower worked as store manager.  The three got to talking and Marty suggested that their employer hold a marathon to raise interest in their cause...and reportedly that moment set off the chain of events leading to the annual tradition.  The racecourse stayed the same up until 2020 when they moved both the marathon and half-marathon to southwest of Gainesville, starting and ending at the newly built Celebration Point.  In '21 everything was cancelled due to Covid, but in 2022 they resumed it, going back to the center of Gainesville while altering the course and eliminating the full marathon as an option.  I also ran that event and thought the new course was fine although I was saddened by the end of the 26.2-mile race.  But they decided for this year to hold only a short 5K race and don't seem interested in longer distances anymore.  I think that's sad and disagree with their decision, but they have a right to do so.  What I do have a problem with is the half-assed way they went about not openly informing the general public that those longer races would be no more...and worse, they seem to have erased their online history of past race results, as if they are somehow ashamed of it all.  Yes, I have a BIG problem with that.  It made me wonder whether there was a change in leadership at Life South, and the new persons in charge were negative about running and wanted to take them into a different direction.  And apparently that new direction involves pestering me with annoying, guilt-riding e-mails about the perpetual catastrophic shortage of a certain blood type.  You see, I have donated blood to Life South before...I'd like to again (after first receiving clearance from my doctor), but right now I have a very serious transparency issue with that organization, which at least as I see it has gotten to be pretty arrogant about itself.  It's not just a reaction to them cancelling those races, either.  After all, I've always felt that our fair city...in conjunction with the University of Florida...should instead be the driving forces behind an annual local marathon/half-marathon event, especially considering Gainesville's important historic place as a center for running and local past standouts like Marty Liquori and Frank Shorter...no need to put all the pressure on one non-profit organization.  Still, although I appreciate Life South's involvement with local long-distance running races over the past several years, they could have been more candid about their recent decision to shut them down...