President's Column - May 2024

Jennifer Hay, Vice President

Jerry and I have spent a lot of newsletter space telling you how much we value Gulf Winds Track Club and its members. We’ve talked about our fave GWTC memories, group runs, races, volunteering, youth programs, and superstars. Now, we want to hear from you. GWTC is your club. We want to know what you think: what you like, what you’d like to see done differently, what new things would be fun. We think the best way to do that is with town hall style meetings and a member survey. We’ll host the first meeting in mid-May. If you have an opinion about the day of the week and time of day for any of the meetings, let us know, and we’ll get busy scheduling. Text me at 850-294-9395 (don’t forget to introduce yourself) or email Jerry at mcdaniel6068@gmail.com. When you receive the email survey later this week, please take a few minutes to give us your feedback. Our goal is to use survey responses, town hall meetings, and all the awesome ideas we know y’all have to grow the club, increase its sustainability, and make it even more fun. We hope every single one of you will be part of this effort. And, as always, feel free to reach out to us—or any board member—anytime with ideas for enhancing the running community and ensuring GWTC is an organization you’re excited to be part of.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Presidents Column November 2025

If you’re a runner, you probably have mixed feelings about the track. It’s where we go to chase speed, suffer through intervals, and push ourselves to the edge. But it’s also where we find rhythm, precision, and the kind of progress that can only come from deliberate,...

Presidents Column October 2025

September always feels like jumper cables to the GWTC race calendar, jolting it into high gear each year. The legacy races that almost always land this month are Sickle Cell, the Women’s Distance Festival, and Prefontaine. If memory serves, Sickle Cell and Women’s...

Vice Presidents Column September 2025

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast, something my wife and kids get tired of hearing me say. Short sidebar – GWTC is launching our own “We Run This Town” podcast in mid-late October, hosted by Mickey Moore, who as usual is volunteering his time and talents....

Presidents Column August 2025

The Gulf Winds Track Club held its annual meeting on July 19 at Momo’s Pizza on Market Street. Based on last year’s member survey feedback requesting more social gatherings, we again combined the annual meeting with a casual social event, just like last year, with...

Vice Presidents Column June-July 2025

This past week, the GWTC Executive Board voted to make the single largest donation that we have ever made to become an official sponsor of the 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships being held at Apalachee Regional Park, known to most runners as the ARP. If...

Presidents Column May 2025

A New Perspective   Like most of you, I have run a lot of races. My last race was the Sickle Cell in 2024. After a series of doctor appointments, it was determined I needed surgery, but I hope to return to racing—maybe late fall—or, if you will, “participating.”...

Vice Presidents Column April 2025

There are very few things I like more than waking up on Sunday morning to go run the trails over at Maclay Gardens State Park. It’s one of the reasons why I think it would be hard to beat Tallahassee if you were looking for a place where you can run trails year-round....

Presidents Column March 2025

  I have written time and again about my old running group, the Sloths. Not unlike the group runs that many of you are now a part of, this group of friends came together and bonded as a result of daily runs from a downtown office building in the middle of our...

Vice Presidents Column February 2025

If someone had told me seven years ago that I’d be VP of a track club and writing an article about how much I love running, I would have told you that was crazy. I never ran until January, 2018 – running was a necessary evil of ‘real’ sports like soccer and tennis. My...

Presidents Column January 2025

There is this program that I listen to some weeks on NPR that the hosts always begin by sharing the the best news they have heard all week. Well the best GWTC news I have heard all week was the announcement by Race Directors Jack and Laura McDermott just prior to race...