What a great time was had by all at our 2nd TATUR Meeting. We met at Steve and Sarah Huhn's beautiful new house in Bixby. A summary of the meeting can best be summed up by this exerpt from Sarah's blog:
Sarah wrote:
TATUR Gathering
Tuesday night, Steve and I hosted the second meeting of our newly formed trail running club, TATUR (Tulsa Area Trail Ultra Runners) at our house. We both agreed we should keep it simple, so as not to discourage anyone from wanting to host a meeting in the future. So we asked Brian Hoover to spread the word that we would have some simple snacks and drinks, but nothing fancy.
Of course, that didn't keep me from running around the house in a frenzy of white-tornadic housecleaning mania for two days. Nor did it stop me from spending most of Tuesday whipping up all kinds of fabulous hors d'ouvres, dips and cookies. I made hummus, guacamole, pinwheels w/turkey, spinach and homemade green olive pesto, and chocolate chip cookie bars. I had also been to Wild Oats and purchased snack mix, crackers and chips. For drinks, we served iced tea, bottled water and coffee.
Brian had invited Randy Ellis to speak. Randy lives in Sapulpa and wrote the running book, "Running With Payne", in which he chronicles a cross-country run he made in the late nineties. His journey paralleled the transcontinental footrace from Los Angeles to New York made in 1928 by native Oklahoman and Cherokee Indian Andy Payne. Randy talked about what it means to be an ultra runner, offering encouragement to all of us. He talked about his book, answered questions, and had a few copies with him that he autographed for those who wanted one. He was a wonderful guest speaker. I think he worried that he was talking for too long, but I know I could have listened to him for another hour! He is an amazing runner, and is very gracious and humble.
Brian and Dan Threlkeld also talked to the group about the direction they envision the organization taking. Dan is very encouraging, especially to those new to running, and so are Brian and his fiancee, Kathy Sager (another legendary local runner). And Dan's wife Joann brought some fabulous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that she had made! I really hope our group can do some good things to promote the sport of trail running in Oklahoma, and particularly in this area. Brian has done a really awesome job on the Tatur website. He has put an incredible amount of time and effort into it, and the result is an entertaining, informative and interesting site. It can be seen at www.tatur.org .
Afterwards, everyone visited about running and all kinds of things. There were a few people there who decided to sign up as new members, and some books and running magazines were exchanged. I think someone counted about twenty-five folks in attendance. All in all it was a very pleasant, motivating and successful meeting. I'm sure we're all looking forward to the next one.+
In the meantime... let's run!