Michelle and Steve Robinson
I’m sure you all know people who you consider “pillars” in the running community. I know several people like that. There are two that I find so delightful that I decided to do a blog post about them.
Steve and Michelle Robinson both started out as walkers, Michelle ten years ago and Steve about three. Steve started walking as a way to lower his triglycerides and ended up falling in love with running.
Soon they started signing up and doing races together. They are both Half Fanatics and Michelle is a Maniac as well. For those of you who aren’t familiar, these are clubs that require members to complete a certain number of races within a certain criteria. For instance one of the requirements that can be met to become a member of Half Fanatics is to run two half marathons within 16 days then three within ninety days. The Marathon Maniacs are a similar club, but for the full marathon distance. The last few years they have run, together, approximately twenty-eight half marathons a year!
One of the goals the Robinson’s have is to run in as many different states as they can. They are already at ten states.
According to Michelle, “We mostly enjoy the social aspect of running. We have found this group of people to be so diverse, yet with such a strong commonality of just good decent supportive people. You meet the nicest people running.”
I can personally attest to this as I have seen them at races on many occasions either running or there to cheer their friends on. They are very happy, sociable and personable people.
They love to do relays so much that they have two white relay vans! They also like to decorate them and ferry all their friends to races just to add to the fun and festive aspect of racing. Their relay name is Fear the Turtles, so watch for them and say hello. They love to meet all the fellow runners they can.
I am the co-race director for two local events, the Bald Peak Half and the 12 Bridges Relay. Bald Peak will be in its fourth year next year. It’s an extremely challenging race that is quickly developing a cult following among the … um well the “crazier” runners out there.
Michelle and Steve have been so enthusiastic about Bald Peak that this year they were responsible for twenty-five other runners signing up! They also participated in our relay with two Turtles Teams. They were so fun and kind. They created cute little bags of candy (including candy turtles) and handed them out to all the volunteers. We love them!
Steve has created a great Facebook group called, “We Are Runners So We Talk Running.” It’s a great venue for sharing anything and everything about racing, training, goals and accomplishments. Recently they took the acronym for we are runners (WAR) and started wearing tattoos at races, so if you see someone with WAR stamped on them (usually on their calves,) introduce yourself.
As you can tell, I’m a great fan of these two people who emanate everything that we as a running community are: supportive, encouraging, kind to each other and so enthusiastic about our training, our racing and our goals.
So there you have it folks, you have officially met the Robinsons!
