The original Ponyette comes out of the stable!

Great news from up North. Cindy Winther has returned to racing and we're all pumped to here about her first race in a couple years. And she hit her goal time to the bloddy minute! Here's her report:

"I did the Great bay 1/2 in Newmarket, NH. My goal was to hit 1/2 of my fastest marathon time (3:38) so I needed to hit 1:49. Ben's advice was to go out easy for the first 8 and then if I felt good to push it the last 5. So I ignored that and went out hard the first 5 and just stuck it through for the last 8. It was like running in Henniker, a little hilly with some dirt roads thrown in. It was a nice course.

I ran the last mile near trail runner extraordinaire Tom Parker. After the race we chatted a little. He said he had run the Merrimack 10 miler the day before and said he knew Crazy Dave. I also saw NETT's Paul Young there and he was flying as usual and super supportive.

It was good to be back - other than our local 5K in Henniker I have not run a race since I had Elsa. I think Ben and I are going to try to the Yankee Homecoming in Newburyport in August."

For the record, Cindy finished in exactly 1:49, her goal time on the nose! Don't we all wish we could pull that off after a couple years out! Nice work.

I know it's hard for some of the current NETT Ponyettes to picture it, but in the early days of NETT, Cindy was often the sole female participating in our early excursions(think Lynn Woods 2003). Even during her break from racing, she has been a big supporter coming out to races (cheering us on at Topsfield, volunteering at the Chamberas race EVERY year) and supporting us all.

AND OF COURSEshe has the distinction of coining the phrase "MiniPonies" so we ALL owe her a big thank you for that one.

Congrats again Cindy!