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Coach Pat Connelly Motivates Leukemia Team in Training Runners

Posted on April 17th, 2006

I like nothing better then to provide motivation leadership prior to any athletic contest whether I am speaking to one runner or 1,000. It becomes very special when the audience is a composite of hundreds of runners that are not just running for their own enjoyment and success, but have given of their time and effort for other people less fortunate then themselves.

Leukemia TNT participants are a wonderful reflection of the cross section of America that brings out the best in what our country has to offer.

Crossing a marathon finish line knowing you took the 49,000 steps necessary to cover the distance of 26.2 miles, having a ribbon placed around your neck and feeling the weight of a gold medal press down against your chest is one thing, to do this knowing you have run your miles while raising much needed money for a charity magnifies the experience ten fold. What a wonderful achievement! Just think of the self esteem of each runner who can now go forward in life knowing they sacrificed their time, training, pain and worked diligently achieving miles as well as dollars for someone that could relearn to live a full life while you ran.

My traditional “Fire It Up” chant was very high spirited and special for me because two of the dedicated TNT coaches were former running students of mine form the L.A. Roadrunners, Greg Minter and Marty Greenberg.