Some Tour Guiding Tid-bits

It's another hot day tour guiding in Williamstown! It's days like this that by the time we reach Spring St, the heart of the bustling metropolis that is Williamstown, MA (a bit of sarcasm for those who have never visited), my voice is practically gone! This is always quite depressing because my favorite story comes up on Spring St, right by Goff's, our Williams Shop. I tell my tours my favorite story of the rivalry between Williams and nearby Amherst College. The story goes that one night before a big football game, some Amherst students headed over to the Williams football field and carved a huge "A" right into the field. The Williams students were understandably upset, they waited a few days and then headed over to the Amherst field, where they carved in a big "B+". I suppose that's the kind of clever back-and-forth that you will get between the first and second best liberal arts colleges in the country, though Williams certainly got the best of that one.
When I was a freshmen, our Homecoming football game against Amherst was actually featured for ESPN Game Day. It was the first time they ever showed a Division III game, and it is know as the "biggest little game." We won that game and I was also caught in a photo that made the cover of the Williams alumni magazine! I am the little girl holding up her fist, wearing sunglasses, in the lower part of the cover.


Today is a tempo run! Tempo runs begin with a mile or so warm up, followed by alternating a half mile at hard effort level with a half mile easy, for a mile and a half. Then you just warm down for a mile or so. So that's what I'll be doing this afternoon in the Berkshires, hope your summers are going well! And go TEAM!

Everyone Should Come to Williamstown!!

Not only is the Tony-award-winning Williamstown Theater Festival going on (Justin Long, the Mac guy, is performing in the current show Samuel J. and K., and spends his night at the Herring, our beloved Spring St. bar) but there is also all of the Berkshires to enjoy! This is not just a tour guiding plug, I promise, I thought I'd share a few pictures with you that I took as three friends and I trekked to "The Tubs" a spot near campus perfect for floating around in colorful tubes!




And we had a breathtaking sunset to accompany our trip back to school!
...which wouldn't have been complete without a cow or two, GO EPHS (The Williams mascot is a Purple Cow, for those of you completely confused by this statement. And we are called the Ephs, after our founder, Ephraim Williams)!

Welcome!

Hello everyone!
My name is Susannah Talley Eckman, and I am a rising senior at Williams College, in Williamstown, MA. This October, I will be running in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, CA, as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. You can access my website here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/nikesf10/seckmanrax
I am running in memory of my sister Katharine (aka Casey or Kat) who passed away as a 21-year-old senior at Hamilton College, in upstate New York. Periodically, as my blog my way through the next 13 weeks or so of training, I will share some of my favorite memories about Casey. For those of you who knew her, I hope they spark some happy bits of memory, and for those who never had to the chance to meet her, I hope they can offer you a glimpse into the truly amazing person that my sister was.
I am also running in honor of my aunt Jeanne, who has bravely battled lymphoma and is one of the most inspiring ladies you will ever meet. Her strength and bravery definitely helps fuel those last few miles of my weekly long run.
I am participating in the Virtual Team in Training, and not as part of one of the organization's local on-the-ground groups, because I am truly hopping all over the place this summer. Once I finished school in May I was home outside Philadelphia for a bit spending time with my mom, Susan, father Rick, and our animals: Honey and Georgia, those goofy golden retrievers, and Lily, Ellie and Angus, our beloved cats. Then I headed to Hawaii to visit Tommy Kobayashi, our adopted brother, to soak up the sun in Honolulu and Kona, as well as for the chance to run a stretch of the route that comprises part of the Iron Man triathalon. Next I headed to Martha's Vineyard to work at Camp Jabberwocky for my second year. Jabberwocky is a camp for disabilities, begun primarily for those with cerebral palsy, and now welcoming campers with all sorts of disabilities. I urge you to check out their website: www.campjabberwocky.org
Now you will find me in Williamstown, working as a tour guide for Williams for the month of July. I will also share some of my very best guiding stories periodically throughout these months of blogging.
In August, I will head back home to paint (you can check out my archival blog of my work at susannaheckman.blogspot.com) and to play golf with my dad. I'll also get to check out the course I will run for the marathon in Ssan Francisco, as luck would have it, my dad is heading out there for a business trip in early August.
There you have it, an exhaustive post on my activities this summer and the beginning of my training. Today is a rest day for me, after my long run of 6 miles yesterday, which felt great! I hope you enjoy keeping up with my training through these pages, and feel free to leave comments about anything you would like me to include in my posts!
Happy Summer!
Susannah