Cheers to New Roads! - Verge update

Building a New Road

Join the Development Team, Board, or become a Coach to be part of something great, and continue opening a world of possibilities for so many people!

I found out this summer that the road I’d been taking to start and end my bike rides from home was going to be closed for 3 weeks to be repaved. I was thrilled because it was such a mess that it was a serious hazard to ride, forcing careful maneuvering and elevated stress through sections that offered no option but to simply hope all goes well. I was also frozen in a bit of panic because this meant that, instead, I would have to ride the road that I had my bike crash on in 2020 that left me with a broken elbow and a 6 month recovery from a brain injury - a road I once loved, but hadn’t mustered the nerve to return to since the crash.

The new road is open and it’s awesome! Cycling bliss. Smooth sailing and a blast to ride. Flat to gently rolling terrain, that sweet new pavement makes the potential those miles held all this time a reality. It’s perfect for easy or recovery rides, and also for pushing the limits with short intervals and Time Trials.

I loved getting back out there on my crash route, the goldilocks challenges of the climbs it offers, and the lack of stress from the other road so much that I quadrupled my riding time during the road closure and have increased my fitness so significantly that I am able to make full use of the new road at a new level. The two roads connect and it’s a whole new world out there now.

Now, gritting my teeth with determination and smiling in joy of the experience, instead of gritting my teeth in distress and smiling in relief that I survived.

Yes, Verge programs are paused for the moment to focus on building a new road and rejuvenate myself from burnout. Over the next month I will be interviewing folks from our Summer Outreach, and others, to gauge their areas of interest and availability, then we will meet as a group to discuss roles and determine the development team that will spend the next year building the organization, together, that I have needed and not had.

I understand what this means in the moment for many folks, my heart does bleed, but I cannot continue without support and an organization. (There is a possibility of upcoming winter or spring programs.) The goal is long term and to keep Verge alive and thriving for many years and many people to come, including you. I hope you understand that I have put every ounce of my being into your children and this program since I founded it over 7 years ago and I hope you will support this effort.

In a nutshell: A run club is typically operated and supported by its members with requirements to volunteer and contribute in order to participate. This has not been the case with Verge members. Verge is a unique program with unique needs. It is requiring me to find an alternate way to operate that works for all. This means ongoing need for additional funding and hired staff. I feel that the way forward is a hybrid model:

  1. A formal organization to support the program.

  2. In season, program specific requirements for families to volunteer and contribute to the team by helping with tasks and coordination that also aids in strengthening and unifying the Verge community + an annual team fundraising/social activity (Flutie 5K is the target activity).

  3. Ultimately, expansion to provide for the need/demand while also increasing funding and partnership opportunities.

What is needed right now for what is? A Development Team, a Board, and Coaches.

In more detail: A group of committed folks to work together and help part time - Fundraising managers/coordinators; funding seekers; networkers; marketing/communications/PR person(s); people good at managing/coordinating; volunteers to help with associated tasks; Board members with business, finance, nonprofit management and development, communications experience. Time commitment: Depends on role - from 1-2 hours per month to 10-20 hours a week. Certain roles may be paid or develop into paid positions.

Interested people can email me at arussell@teamverge.org to discuss your area of interest and availability.

Join the team to be part of something great and continue opening a world of possibilities for so many people while bring the community together and shaping lives in a positive way!

Falmouth Road Race Charity Team - August 2022

Congrats and Thank You to our Falmouth Race Race Charity Team runners on their races and all of their fundraising efforts! Great job everybody!

Loads of thanks and appreciation to everyone who makes this fantastic event happen! We were super psyched for this opportunity and to be out there running our first FRR as partners in the Numbers for Nonprofits program.

There is still time to donate. Fundraising remains open until September 30. Your donation improves lives and opens worlds of possibility to so many by making the sport of running and fitness accessible to people with social, emotional, behavioral, intellectual, and learning disabilities or challenges, while bringing the community together.

DONATE

Thank you!

Summer Community Outreach

That’s a wrap on our summer community outreach initiative! Thanks to our awesome Summer Outreach Team! They had a lot of fun connecting with the adult running community at several local races and club group runs this July to bring awareness about Verge and inspire folks to get involved in coaching, operations, development, and leadership.

Verge is everything a typical running program is…and isn’t. We operate in a way that removes the barriers to participation and growth for those with challenges, and we bring the community together while doing so. Running is a sport for everybody, unfortunately, people in the margins between “can” and “can’t” get left out. Running is an individual sport, but the social and competitive aspect is what often brings growth and success. This can be life changing physically, mentally, socially, emotionally - or even life saving.

Verge makes the sport possible for all these people in the margins. We are expanding accessibility in ways no one else is. Ways that are successfully contributing to the movement of inclusion in our society.

More people who are healthy, happy, and connected only leads to a healthier, happier, more connected society. There is so much awfulness in the world. This is such a wonderful way to alleviate some of it where we live, bring people together and shape lives in a positive way.

Follow ups with folks will begin at the end of August to gauge areas of interest and availability to get involved in Development, Coaching, and joining our Board.

Run for Lovelane 5K/1 Mile - Spring 2022

So much fun at the Run for Lovelane 5K & 1 Mile on June 12 to close out a great spring season! Some really great moments of perseverance, personal bests and accomplishments, excitement, joy, and teamwork. Congrats to Avery, Oscar, and Jack for placing in their age groups! Congrats to Harry for not stopping “even though he wanted to”, and to Ted who has been chasing “better” for years and continues to improve. You did amazing today! Everyone had their own personal achievements today. Proud of you. Congrats to you all, and thank you to all the volunteers and coaches!!

Run for Lovelane 5K & 1/2 Mile Fun Run - 6/9/19

Another awesome, sunshiny day at the Run for Lovelane 5K and 1/2 Mile Fun Run! Congrats, everyone, on a great race! An independent feat for some, a family affair for others, and others ran with the company of our awesome volunteers! Thank you - you make this possible for the runners.

5K runners: Jack G., Jack L., Zadie, Zach, Jeffrey, Gavin, Kylee, Emma, Andrew

1/2 Mile runners: Ted, Sean, Alex, Samuel, Emily, Matt, Patrick

Great running, everyone!

Spring Team Track Meet - 6/2/19

Awesome running, throwing, jumping, and hurdling out there! I’m impressed with the efforts and with how many tried new things today. Thanks so much to the parents and volunteers who helped with field events, ribbons, check-in, timing, cheering, and of course, Matt< for starting all the races. Fantastic job everyone!

Events: 100, 200, 400, 800, Mile, 2x50 Relay, 40m Hurdles, Turbo Jav, Softball Throw, Long Jump

Spring Trail Runs - 2019

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day mornings on the trail!

Everyone has so much fun and does so great on these. It always bring out another side of our runners. We do an out and back course of 2 miles with a water stop at the 1 mile turnaround. Everyone can choose to do 1, 2, 3, or 4 miles total.

Indoor Track Team Meet - March 2019

Another super fun track meet to wrap up indoor season! Great job everyone!!

I can never get over the excitement, big smiles, grit, competition, and effort that comes out at a meet. 40m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, Mile, Hurdles, and Turbo Jav. Thanks so much to the volunteers and parents for your help and cheering, especially our ribbon and timing crew!

Team Track Meet - November 11, 2018

A fantastically frigid day for a track meet, but we did it! I even saw a few parents jump in to keep warm. :) Great turn out, and tons of fun to end another excellent season. We had a bit of a snafu with the ribbons due to the wind but results/times were emailed to everyone. Thanks so much to our awesome volunteers who checked everyone in, wrote up the ribbons (and chased them across the field), the timers for doing such an awesome job, those who ran as buddies, Matt and Alli for starting all the races, and of course the cheering fans. Great running team! See you in January.

2018 Mayor's Cup XC Races

Fantastic day at Mayor’s Cup XC! Cross country is a ton of fun, and a unique challenge in running. This event is a blast and gives our kids an opportunity to run with their own age groups, and experience what it’s all about. It speaks to those with a competitive streak while also challenging everyone at their own level. If nothing else gets you, the second half of Bear Cage Hill will!

Five kids made it out yesterday on a chilly, rainy morning. (A few were sick - we missed you!) Thankfully, the rain ended by 9 and it turned into a great morning. We met up, got our bibs, preview walked the course together, kept warm with some jogging and a few drills, then it was go time. Everyone was nervous, but they were excited and had a lot of fun! And they did awesome!!

Congrats to Ted, Tony, Zadie, Avery, and Gavin! This was everyone’s first XC race except for Ted, who PR’d his time by 2.5 minutes! So for the most part, it was just about getting out there and doing it yesterday, and for a couple, proving to themselves that they CAN.

Thanks so much to Reza for guide running!

So much fun. Great job everyone!

Summer Run Camp 2018

(Scroll down for Gallery of photos)

Another fun week of summer run camp has come and gone!

Congrats to Gavin, Jack, Zadie, George, Jaden, Shea, and David on your week of hard work, play, and lots of improvement. Thank you immensely to all our awesome volunteer coaches for coming out each day to make it a great experience for each kid!! Reza, Nate, Mairead, Matt, Alli, Rachel, Amelia, Marina, Amanda A., and Makai. With each runner needing 1:1 coaching, it takes many volunteers to cover them for the week. Thank you for sharing your time, talents, and spirit.

We ran Mon, Wed, Fri at the track, and Tues, Thurs on the trail. We worked on stamina, pacing, team work, speed, form, reaction time at "go!", following thru the finish, coordination, balance, core strength, self calming with deep breaths, and various individual mental aspects and practicing positive behaviors. The week ended with a 100m race and a timed 1 mile, awesome form and focus with drills, and working together on exercises instead of with their coaches. Each day ended with writing about their workouts in their journals. Whether they can only note the weather, distance run, and write their names, or could include their achievements, goals, and challenges, journals encourage everyone to reflect on their experience.

I love the condensed and small nature of camp week. It not only gives the kids a chance to bond and develop in ways that they can't with the lack of frequency or routine of only once weekly or occasional attendance at regular practices, it also gives me a better chance to develop coaching and the program by learning, experimenting, testing, applying, and gaining food for thought and ways to better run regular practices or work with certain individuals. It energizes.

Working with such a wide range of personalities, cognitive and physical abilities, and anxiety and attention difficulties is a challenge above training typical young runners in the moment, but when you step back and look from a distance, it's all the same. Everyone has fears, fatigue, moods, doubts, individual physical issues, is motivated by something or other, wants to connect with others at some level or other, has their own idea of fun, and has the ability to become a better runner.

If there is one thing life and sport has taught me, it's that growth is a slow process; and that there is a right and wrong time to expect, push, or require something of someone, including ourselves. Verge runners have taught me to finally relax and truly appreciate and believe in the value of the long game. At Verge, we are more patient and flexible than a typical program. I do also know that frequency and routine are very important for progress, so the week long program gives us a chance to capitalize on it. 

Great job team!! Have an awesome summer. See you soon.

2018 Info - Happy Spring!

With our 3rd, and fantastic winter season now behind us, here is info for the rest of 2018. For a recap on the indoor team track meet, go HERE.

 

Spring Season…SIGN UP now!

April 15 – June 20

Attend any combination of locations/days. 2-3x/week is recommended (Boston area).

SCHEDULE

N. Cambridge, Danehy Park

Mondays: 6-7pm  |  Wednesdays:  6-7pm

Lexington Center Track

Sundays:  9-10:15am  |  Thursdays:  6-7pm

Concord, Emerson Fields Track

Sundays:  10:45-11:45am

Boylston, Tahanto HS Track

Sundays:  12:45-1:45pm

 

End of season team events:

June 10 - Run for Lovelane 5K and fun run in Weston.

June 17 – Team Meet, Lexington (Boylston group – we will take a vote on joining Lex. or holding a separate event in Boylston.)

 

Summer

 

NO SUMMER PRACTICES

Summers have been very lightly attended with everyone on vacations. Enjoy the sun and stay active!

 RUN CAMP

This is a one-week evening program in July, Mon-Fri at the Lexington Track and Battle Road Trail.  If there are enough people interested, we will hold a second week to accommodate. More info on the programs page of the website, or talk with AJ if you are interested! Sign ups will start in late May.

 

Fall

 

Sept. 9 – Nov. 11

SCHEDULE TO BE DETERMINED  (most likely to be the same as Spring Season)

 If you are interested in Cross Country, this is the season!

We will participate in the Mayor’s Cup at Franklin Park in October again. If there is enough interest, we may also run at the Wayland XC Fest in October.

End of season team road race will most likely be the Sleepy Hollow 5K + Fun Run in Concord again…everyone has such great time at that, and the course is flat!

 

New!...

 

 Adaptive Motor Skills for Strength & Sport

Our current session ends mid April. Keep an eye out for upcoming sessions at the Lexington Community Center.

Classes are led by our volunteer, Julie Goff, who is a pediatric physical therapist. Classes will be age appropriate; we hope to break them into 2 separate classes in the future:

Kids, ages 5-10  |  Teens and young adults, ages 11+

(The age split is not a hard line. Those on the edge may choose which session is more appropriate for them. There will be more emphasis on core strength and focusing on good form in the older session.)

 

Group/Family Trail runs

Get together for some group runs on the trails!

Trails offer a great way to just go at your own pace, spend time together, and enjoy the outdoors.

Suggested: Mark ½ mile or 1 mile stretch along a path; put a parent, or someone not running, at each end, and put a parent, or someone not running, with water halfway. Let the group run together, or at their own pace. They will pass each other often. This is how we do it at run camp, and everyone has a great time!

Interested?...get some families together, or let me know and I will coordinate!

GREAT TRAILS that are fairly flat, wide and safe (packed sand/dirt):

1. Battle Road Trail in Lincoln/Concord along Rte 2A (start from Minuteman Visitor’s Ctr, or Paul Revere Site for flattest part of trail.)

2. Mass Central Rail Trail in West Boylston.

 

Also New...

 

 LOGBOOKS!

Finally. I have put them together and will begin encouraging their use! You can now go to the Logbooks tab on the maine menu bar.

Why? Logbooks put it all into perspective and keep you in touch with your running. They make it personal; they enforce ownership of your running.

Kids and adults, regardless of cognitive ability, benefit! Logs are a fun, fantastic tool and sidekick. Even if the most you can do is note the weather, how far you went, and maybe how you felt, you have a wonderful record and pattern of your activity and progress to look back on with pride. 

Keeping a log of your running can help to:

·      keep you motivated, develop routine, learn persistence

·      track your progress over weeks, months, and years

·      find patterns: patterns of motivation; possible causes of injury; fatigue and overtraining

Whether you thrive on recording details or find it mundane and pointless, in time you will have a very cool record of how you progressed, where you went wrong, where you went right, and even if you don't keep at it...years from now you may look back at it with a sense of nostalgia, pride, and rekindled motivation.

Instead of issuing books to each member, I have decided to post the pages individually online. This way, you can keep your logbook as you wish and just print out new pages when you need them, and it helps keep our costs down. Size: 8.5 x 11. I suggest using a 3 ring binder. I welcome any feedback on how this is working out for you and any suggestions for changes, including graphics that would be helpful for our crew that communicates with images! 

Logs will be encouraged at practices, and required at camp.

 

LOGBOOK PAGE LINKS

also available on the menu bar of website

MILEAGE LOG CALENDAR

INSTRUCTIONS: Input your total mileage for each day you run. Write in the weekly total at the end of the week. Write in the monthly total at the end of the month. The calendar is kept very general in order to be adapted to any year.

RUNNING TIPS AND GUIDELINES

available soon...

This page has all kinds of helpful, general info! Print it and keep it in your logbook for reference:

·      Track and race distances

·      What happens to your body when you run

·      Important tips for performing your best

·      Injury and injury prevention info

DAILY LOG SHEETS

Fill these out every time you run. In the Workout Details section, you should include any of the following that apply:

·      specific workout details (what did you do)

·      pacing info, and notable times if you timed anything

·      goals

·      accomplishments & challenges

·      who you ran with

·      anything else you want to note

 

Happy spring! See you at the track and park soon. 

(April showers...just a reminder that we run in light rain, cancel in heavy rain.)

-AJ

Verge Inclusive Athletics, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that provides inclusive running programs for youth and young adults with and without developmental challenges, all athletic abilities and goals. We are dedicated to improving the lives of participants and inspiring a love of running and lifelong fitness by helping them to expand their limits in a fun, safe, team environment with the individual support and challenge they need for success and athletic, social, and personal growth.