In photo below James Moreland from the Washington Running Report congratulates Saleema Ross for her successful leadership of the running group.

Saleema Ross of Fort Washington, MD is a bundle of energy. She does not keep the energy all to herself. Ross, a long time Washington Running Report Ranked Runner encourages a hardy band of runners from her work place to join her on daily runs. Her boss at the Organizational Enhancement Branch in Hyattsville, MD loves the idea of everyone joining together as a team and wants the whole building to follow in her footsteps. Ross exhorts her colleagues every day to expand the goals and become more productive, happier, and healthier through running.

Her daily mantra is:

"Desire wants you there;
Determination gets you there;
Discipline keeps you there,
Wherever you want to be."

Ross is a joiner who plans to run all twelve Women's Distance Festival 5Ks this year. In 2007 she was first in her 50-54 division in seven of them. Her best 5K was a 23:16 at the Howard County WDF 5K last July, just before her 54th birthday. In September she proudly took on the rolling hills of Rockville to win the Home Run 10K in 50:27. She was ranked number 21 in her division for the year. Already for 2008, she has qualified for the year end rankings for the 50-54. In the second half of the year, she is a lock for qualifying for the 55-59 division as well.

Her friends wanted so much to thank her for the enthusiastic way she has led them to running success. They surprised her with a special luncheon to honor her with flowers and a gift certificate as well as a Garmin tracking watch. She was totally surprised. Capital Running Company arrived on the scene as she received her gifts and added a complimentary Lawyers Have Heart 10K entry to her bounty. As expected many of her growing group of followers will be planning to join her for the June 14 race. Last year she finished sixth in her age group in 52:06. Three of the top four runners in the 50-54 division were there.

Many of the runners agreed that running is a great way of training to eat. The luncheon today provided another delicious reason to get out on the roads.

Race Results