Spending Some Time With Zoila Gomez: 3rd in 2006 USA Marathon Chamionships; 4th 2008 Olympic Trials in Boston

Hello Everyone,

Hope all is well with everyone. We have had another eventful few days here at "Casa Pena". :0)

As I have mentioned before, Jose has been in contact with Zoila Gomez since we were in Boston for the Marathon and Olympic Trials. Zoila came in fourth in the Olympic Trials and is an alternate for the games in Beijing in August 2008. We are very excited for her. Anyway, Zoila has been so extremely kind in arranging for some in-the-arena shirts (www.in-the-arena.org) for some of Jose's students at Woodland Park Middle School in San Marcos, CA. Well, we have been even more lucky to have the opportunity to meet Zoila this week. She is currently in Chula Vista, at the Olympic Training Center and will be here for about a week. Yesterday she called Jose and he was able to meet her at the Olympic Training Center to pick up the shirts she so kindly brought for the students. He spent quite a bit of time talking with her and was just in awe of her kindness and the fact that he was sitting in the Olympic Training Center in her company along with many other Olympic Athletes. Pretty surreal. I was very excited for him. The most exciting thing is that Zoila will be coming over to our house this week for a personal visit and will spend some time with the kids :0) Wow, how special is that? We are thinking of having a nice meal at home and then taking her to the beach to hang out and play with the boys. She also mentioned that we are allowed to take the kids to the Olympic Training Center to have a look around, which would be so exciting. They love running on the track. Can you imagine them running on the track at the Olympic Training Center? hahahaha...not sure if that is possible of course, but it would be such a great thing and did I forget to mention that mommy will then be taking millions of photo's? Hihihihihihi. Anyway, we are looking forward to her visit and thank her so much in advance for her generosity and kindness in providing the students at Woodland Park Middle School with a nice shirt of her organization: In the Arena. To read more on In the Arena, please go to: www.in-the-arena.org They do such wonderful things for today's youth and communities. Hope all is well with everyone. Take care and more to come on Zoila's visit.