5K

Last month Paul's work held a Couch to 5k run/walk. Families and guests were encouraged to participate. Luckily there was a "child watch" provided, including a bounce maze/slide, bungee run, coloring sheets and The Bee Movie on the big screen. Paul and I got to start the race together while Alayna and Cavell played. We were not missed.

The route was 3 1/3 loops around The SCOOTER Store main campus with a little chute for the finish.

click on picture to view huge quadriceps pounding pavement

Click on picture to witness bulging calves in blurry action

There are no actual pictures of me running but I did achieve a personal record (PR) of 31 minutes. Paul came in 14th overall with a personal best time of 21:57.

After cooling off Paul took Alayna for her fun run. Alayna was very excited to participate in her first race. She ran from the start line to the chute which was close to 1/3 mile. The story is, about halfway into her run she walked about 10 yards then told Paul she NEEDED some water. He let her have a drink from his water bottle and off she ran giggling about beating her Dad!

Here she comes down the chute. Notice, she's running fast enough that Paul is actually jogging to keep up.

Crossing the Finish Line!

Receiving her "medal" for WINNING* the race!!

The end of a good morning.

* according to her.

It's Finally Happened

Some may say that it happened a long time ago, but I am only beginning to admit it myself. I have become my father and joined the ranks of the education world.

I have recently developed, proposed, and started a new position at work. I have moved from Regional Sales Director to a position yet to be titled in the Learning & Organizational Development department. Same company, no move required except my desk, and I still get to work very closely with the same people.

My new job responsibilities will primarily revolve around education and training as well as being the Clinical Director for the company.

I will be in charge of new employee training and developing an ongoing on the job training for current employees. I am also developing a program to train and prepare employees to pass the accreditation test required by Medicare to sell the type of custom chairs I have been working with for the past 10 years. On top of all of that, I will be heading up an effort to gain accreditation for the entire company so that we can provide industry recognized Continuing Education Units to our employees as well as use them as a marketing tool with our referral sources. The goal is to create a world class rehab education program that will be the envy of the industry.

Since I like to bite off more than I can chew, I will also be putting together our policies and procedures for clinical applications. The object of that is to make sure that our customers are sold the right equipment every time. I am also the person that our medical review nurses, inside and outside sales people, and operations people look to when they have questions about equipment, disease states, or customer interaction.

It sounds like a lot of work, but since I was doing most of it already in addition to my sales responsibilities, this will allow me to focus on just a couple of projects at a time. I will not have to travel as much for a while and will eventually create and manage a team of field based trainers. Hopefully my travel will be limited to attending trade shows and seminars that I am either presenting papers or classes at or learning from. Either way, I will be able to spend more time at home with the family.

I am very excited about my new position and working with a new team of people. I get to work with a world class group of experienced educators. I have no formal training on education theory, but I have a group of people around me that are more than willing to help my gain those skills. I have also been informed on the best place to buy discount tweed jackets with leather elbow patches. Now I just need to find a bubble pipe!