Bob’s Life (with NF) ON THE RUN
Posted: December 1st, 2009 | Author: Emily Brown | Filed under: motivation | Tags: ASU, Bob Skold, cheer zone, course, heart, inspire, marathon, Minnesota, Minnesota Chapter, Murray McCartan, neon, NF Endurance Team, pasta dinner, posters, run, Steve McPherson, Sundevils, team, Twin Cities, volunteers, yellow | 3 Comments »By: Bob Skold 
Over the course of 2009 I will have run 10 marathons on my way to 50. I have run most of them with the team, but some just by myself; each way brings with it a varied experience and each event offers something new and exciting. Besides learning more about myself, which comes with the price of the entry fee, I get to tour different places at eye level (like a vacation marathon), and particularly with the team events, meet some special people with big smiles and big hearts — an attitude that inspires me and a story that moves me. This fits: sometimes I like to run alone and sometimes I like to see a lot of yellow to reaffirm that I am not alone.
My best experience with “yellow” came this year at Twin Cities Marathon. At mile 24.5 the Mighty Minnesota NF Endurance Team set-up a Cheer Zone: a wall of yellow with big smiles and I am told a lot of noise (I run without a hearing aid; it’s quiet). The Cheer Zone extravaganza was planned as a Minnesota Chapter event happening with: posters, noisemakers, cheers, music, and all the volunteers and families decked out in NF Endurance Team yellow race crew shirts. At around mile 21, I caught up with Murray McCartan and his friend Steve McPherson and we passed the cheer zone together. Their daughters ran out to greet us with hugs and posters for a priceless photo op. Posters, made at the pasta dinner the night before, read, “Hurray Murray” and “Not too far.”I gave all the volunteers high-fives and headed off to the finish with a smile and tears too. Seeing a Father, along with his good friend as a running partner run for a son with NF as their so proud daughters cheer them on, is a beautiful thing …. something that lingers in the heart and mind’s eye. This image is one of the many living examples of the “be the change you wish to see in the world” idea that you may see on almost every weekend of the year with a runner wearing an NF Endurance neon yellow singlet.
The next marathon for me is in Tucson where I will make a Phoenix stopover to have a 20th birthday dinner with my own daughter, Kathleen. I’m a marathoner and an ASU Dad. I say “Go Team” and she says “Go Sundevils,” but we both say, “Life is what you make it.”
Bob works out of Denver, Colo. and works for the NF Endurance Team. He is on his way to running 50 marathons.
I think that it is wonderful what you are doing. I will be doing my first half marathon in April 2010. I nervous because I have never done this before, but i know that it is for a great cause. There are so many children that will benefit from what you do and I just want to say thank you. My children and I are grateful for you and all the others that dedicate themselves….
Bob—you are my hero. Your spirit fills my tank to keep doing what we are doing here in Minnesota. Keep up the fantastic work and next year we’ll be even louder, bigger and BRIGHTER!
[...] or a first timer, we look forward to seeing you on the course this year! We promise another raucous cheer section at mile 24.5. For more information, please contact Murray McCartan at [...]