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December 2006 Article for Harra Footprints
Inside Texas Running - December Issue
Submitted by Jack McClintic
Because of a misplaced trust in me as the club writer, our report is more a
biography on one of our runners or a short essay about one of our activities. I
feel it is more interesting than reading about the same old laundry list of race
times, enumeration of programs, all ended with an advertisement to join. It has
always been my aim just to thank our runners for being Tornados with a story
about them and of course the best picture I can find. In some small way I like
to capture our club's Latino heritage and our passion for running, respect for
one another, and sheer joy of racing anyone, even if it is just on a training
run! I relate what I know about running Latino style, while being one of the
clubs few Gringos. But that is the beauty of our club, an international club
learning to love our differences and one another. And we want to keep it that
way, while always inviting others to join us no matter how limited their
languages are!
But just to be different from being different, I thought I would enumerate our
programs just in case you would like to add a little adventure to your running
and run faster in the process. We have a speed workout group that meets Tuesdays
and Thursdays at 6:00 pm at the stretching area in Memorial Park. It is led by
Leno Rios and they have some of the fastest female runners in Houston. We would
love to have more fast females join us; and we are sure the fast guys will
follow! On Sundays we have our long run of 10 or more miles meeting at the same
place at 7:00 am. This is always well attended with about 10-20 runners. We head
out at 8:00 mile pace or a little less and at the half way point it picks up to
6:00 mile pace or sometimes faster, a long run with twist of tempo. We always go
out to the taqueria afterwards to recover with authentic Mexican food.
And once you run with us you will get to know what is under the surface, the
important things about us. Our club loves to run and run hard, loves to kid each
other, we feel that we are all family, have a passion for Salsa dancing, love
birthday parties, are found of kids, and respect all runners. You will get a
hand shake before every run and sometimes a kiss on the cheek. We celebrate
often with picnics at Memorial Park, with homemade Mexican food, lots of beer
and of course tequila. We are a club where even our Gringos are good (and some
are even good dancers)! We don't have a lot of cash or huge numbers, but what we
have we share. But most of all I hope that if you do join us for a run or hang
out with us, that you will learn to "corre con tu el corazon!"
Please check us out at
www.tornadosrunningclub.com
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