Catching Up!

Friday, April 01, 2016 · Mike Davis

Good morning and happy April! I have been absent for over a week now and I apologize. Pretty much been down because of sickness since mid-last week and thankfully am now weaned off of Nyquil. Though I have to say that as bad tasting as Nyquil is, it is my go to when I am down. Sadly I have done little in the way not only chatting but, also working out. Following my own advice to our runners, I have given my body a full opportunity to heal and recover. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately this weekend is my Drill weekend at the base, so my weekend is pretty well shot. The reason it is somewhat fortunate is that it will be my last Drill weekend of my career and at the end of the weekend I will have my official retirement ceremony. Though Sunday will not be my last day in uniform, I actually have a retirement date of April 29th and that day will be my final day after 33 years, 6 months and 13 days. Wow, what a great adventure and an awesome blessing to have served my country for that amount of time. Great times around No Finish Line Running! We welcomed 4 new members to our coaching staff, we have a great plan for the remainder of 2016 and things just continue to get better! This week we said goodbye to our Pilates instructor Erica Rice who has been leading one of our favorite resources since we opened the doors. Erica was truly loved by everyone and we will miss her but, life has become busy for her and we are truly grateful for having had more than a year of her. However we are blessed to have Ms. Ryan Bailey stepping in as our new Pilates instructor and the only difference will be the start time on Tuesday nights which will now be 6:30. Ryan is a physical therapist as well as a certified Pilate’s instructor and we are excited to have the awesome combination that will continue to provide fun and helpful Pilates instruction to our Resource Center! Come check it out on Tuesday at 6:30. My beautiful wife and best friend traveled in yesterday from North Carolina to share in my retirement ceremony. I could not be more blessed to have a wife/best friend that has been such a force in my life. I certainly do not need to be separated from her as much as I have to know how important she is to me but, being a part certainly highlights the importance of her in my life. She will be at the Saturday morning run from the Center so if you want to come say hi and go for a run with Kathleen, come on by for the run (8:30). Kathy also brought along old boy Roy our super dog with her. Roy is such a joy to me and always makes me smile. Despite my earlier plans, I cannot run the Saint Paddies 5 Miler Sunday because of my retirement ceremony. Trying to squeeze that run in would have been stressful and that is not what I want on a day that will be challenging enough. So my first race of 2016 will be April 10th as NFLR will be out in force to run the “Reds Race for a Better Community” 5 miler. “Reds” may be one of my favorite races and I can see myself running it for the next 50 years or so. A great local Dover New Hampshire race and a wonderful but, challenging course. Hope to see you there! Time to get along. Hope you have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend! See you on the roads! God Bless! Mike