On March 10, 2006 the Mayor of Houston, Bill White, welcomed the attendees of the 49th Annual RRCA National Convention hosted by the Houston Striders. He officially declared the day RRCA Houston National Convention Day and thus started the festivities of this year's convention. During the opening general session, attendees were treated to several dance routines by the Houston Rockets Power Dancers and they were moved by a video tribute of the unofficial Georgia State 5K Championship Race held at Camp Striker, Iraq. Following the tribute, the attendees were presented with the American flag that was flown during the "Freedom 5K" then everyone sung the National Anthem. The 50 foot race banner from the race was unrolled and hung in the lobby of the Hyatt for the duration of the Convention.

Convention attendees had the opportunity to hear from informative speakers, interact with fellow running club and event leaders, meet with the Convention sponsors at the Expo, and many took advantage of getting to know the new Executive Director, Jean Knaack. Runner's World hosted a luncheon for the RRCA State Reps, and the group was entertained by the Mayor of Running, Bart Yasso. During the luncheon, the RRCA was pleased to announce the anonymous gift of $100,000 over the course of three years to fund the attendance of State Reps to the RRCA Annual Convention.

"This is such an amazing gift and shows the true dedication of a very committed volunteer associated with the RRCA. This gift is an investment in the State Reps program whose purpose is to promote the mission of the RRCA and grassroots, long distance running at the state and local level", beamed Jean Knaack, Executive Director. "We are extremely honored and thankful to be entrusted with these vital funds."

The morning runs held at various local running hot spots were well attended. The Houston Striders developed a walk rallye that took multiple teams of three participants on a hunt around town searching for local facts such as "Who's on First and What's on Second", what is the address of the Toyota Center, and what is JJ Sweeney. Everyone on the walk had a great time trying to navigate through downtown Houston while locating all of the necessary clues. The walk ended at the Texas Barbeque where attendees dined on local cuisine while enjoying the tunes of a local band lead by a Houston Strider.

Saturday March 11, 2006, the HEB Bayou City Classic 10K was the RRCA National 10K Championship. Over 2300 people turned out to run and walk in this fast flat course. A long tradition of the Bayou City Classic has been the inclusion of centipedes in the race. Centipedes are groups of costumed runners tied together for the duration of the race. The RRCA National Board along with a few special guests showed their team spirit and showed up at the starting line as Greek Running gods in their togas. They were delighted to learn they won an award for their efforts.

To many the humidity played a factor in their performance, but several convention attendees were able to take home age group awards for their performances. The RRCA National 10 K Champion for the male open division went to John Hedengren, age 28, with a time of 31:57 and a pace of 5:09. RRCA Roads Scholar, Trent Briney, took third place overall. Heidi Hullinger, age 23, is the National 10 K Champion for the open female with a time of 37:32.7 and a pace of 6:03. Barbara Stoll, age 44, was the female master. Karen Bowler, age 56, was the grand master, and Yvonne Thomas, RRCA State Rep was the senior grand master. For the men, John Butler, age 43, was the male masters. Steve Brammre, age 54, was the grand master, and Loyd Carey, age 63, was the senior grand master.

Following the race the attendees enjoyed a Tex-Mex lunch with guest speakers Jan Seeley and Rich Benyo of Marathon & Beyond. The attendees continued to enjoy educational sessions on Saturday. At the conclusion of the sessions, attendees made a mad dash to the State Reps silent auction to franticly bid on items before the close of the auction and the start of the live auction.

Jeff Darman and Phil Stewart hosted the live auction fundraiser to benefit the Roads Scholar Program and the State Reps Fund during the RRCA/USATF hosted cocktail reception. Attendees enjoyed complimentary cocktails and gave very generously through the live auction. Between the live and silent auctions, the RRCA tripled the money raised from these events compared to last year's auctions.

Following the live auction and cocktail reception, the attendees were treated to a fantastic annual banquet where the 50th RRCA Annual Convention location and the 2007 National Championship Races were announced. Press releases about these events will soon follow. To kick off the evening's program, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race presented the RRCA with a check to the Roads Scholar Program in the amount of $10,500. Two current Roads Scholars, Trent Briney and Mike Morgan, were in attendance and were presented with their final grants for the year.

Over dessert, the attendees were entertained by a moving presentation from Kathrine Switzer and Roger Robinson. Both read excerpts from their forthcoming book 26.2 Marathon Stories which will premier in conjunction with the Boston Marathon. However, one lucky attendee at the banquet bid auction style and won the first available copy of the book.

Jean Knaack thanked Kathrine Switzer for having the courage to open doors for women. Knaack expressed, "It was the courage of women like Kathrine that have enabled me to have the opportunities I have today." Knaack pledged to keep the doors open for future generations.

The National Awards portion of the program commenced following the guest speakers. Hall of Fame inductees Deena Kastor and Meb Keflizighi were honored with a video tribute. Both were unable to attend due to their busy race schedules. However, the attendees were delighted to hear the statement of thanks from Meb, who had won the Gate River Run earlier that morning and had become a father the week before. Nearly all of the National awardees were able to attend the evening's events and were honored to receive their national awards.

The RRCA Executive Director honored Marlene Atwood for her service to the RRCA in 2005 along with the convention organizers, Steve Shepard, Bard Shepard, Brett Riley, and Doug Spence, for putting on an outstanding event. Each received the Executive Director's Appreciation Award. The evening concluded with the President's Award given for significant service to the RRCA in 2005. The awards were presented to Lisa Paige and Brent Ayer. Paige, Western Region Director, was given the award for her leadership in for the executive director search process, and Ayer, Eastern Region Director, was given the award for stepping in and handling the affairs of the National Office during a time of transition.

The following morning, the membership met in session for the Annual Business Meeting of the Membership. The 2004 minutes from the meeting were approved, the financial status of the organization was discussed, the 2006 budget was presented and approved, the communications committee presented a report, and the 2006 slate of officers was presented and approved. The RRCA was proud to announce that it is on solid financial ground, and the Board of Directors was in the unique position of being able to develop an operating reserve fund. The solid financial position was due to continued support from members and strong financial support from national sponsors such as Gatorade and Dermik.

The 49th RRCA Annual Convention and Annual Business Meeting of the Membership concluded at 10:26 CST on Sunday, March 12, 2006.

"I cannot thank the convention organizers, the Houston Striders, the City of Houston, our sponsors, and attendees enough for making the 49th RRCA Annual Convention the huge success that it was." - Jean Knaack, Executive Director