Thirty Days of Thanks – Karen Pitcock

You know those days where you would run and play at recess…well, I would partake in a light skip walk.   I will never tell the story of   how I achieved complete domination in the 5th grade Turkey Trot. Besides, I always seemed to fall terribly ‘ill” around that time. Basically, I was never a runner…until I met the wonderful Karen Pitcock.

It was just an ordinary day at the ol’ Schipul office when I came across one of our clients’ web sites, Team Teen. I perused around for awhile and came across their mission statement:

To help “at-promise” high school students develop greater confidence and self-esteem through training and participation in 5K races and sprint triathlons.

My first thought was where the hell was Team Teen during my Turkey Trot glory days? And my second thought was I must remove Comic Sans from this page…thus, I gave her a ring.

That call became much more than just some simple site updates. You cannot help but want to talk to Karen about EVERYTHING. Bless her heart, I probably told her my entire life story all the way down to my Dallas Cowboy obsession. During one of our many phone calls, she began telling me about the marathons she has ran over the years. This was probably one of those times where I should have just listened…nope, that most definitely did not happen.

“Geez Karen, I have always wanted to run a marathon!” (A distant, I mean very distant goal. 10-20 years at least)

“Courtney, sign-ups are this week for the Houston Half Marathon…you should totally do it!’

Of course sign-ups for the biggest race in Houston were that week…

It has now been 4 months since that conversation and I am 2 months and 11 days away from running the Houston Half Marathon. Karen has not just become my wonderful mentor; she has become my biggest fan. She has the most genuine heart and probably the cutest laugh I have ever heard. I am so proud of everything she has accomplished….like, RUNNING THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON. I swear that woman has super powers.

Thank you Karen for being such an amazing Schipul client. But most of all, thank you for being a wonderful friend.