Spotted: Fleet Feet Menlo Park running coaches in Cuban hats at Carpaccio

Dining at Carpaccio a few nights ago, we spotted a good-looking group of ladies all wearing straw hats. Curious about the occasion, we wandered over to the table, only to find that Fleet Feet Menlo Park owner Lisa Taggert (far left) was one of them.

She followed up with an email the next day: “The group of us having dinner are all Fleet Feet Menlo Park running coaches. We’d just had our kick off Choco-Rock the Holidays training team group run.It’s a program to get runners through the holidays and stay in shape. The goal race is the Hot Chocolate 15K in San Francisco on January 10.

“The [other] ladies are Elizabeth May, Sonia Sethi Joshi,  and Emily Bayer. Elizabeth is the one who just got back from a trip to Cuba with her husband, Brett May. They were on a music exchange program supporting youth music education.”

Elizabeth also emailed with some information about the Cuban trip and its purpose:  “Our trip, in addition to providing musical resources to youth organizations in Cuba, was to benefit Terry’s Kids. Terry is a friend of my husband, and the effort Terry is making to keep music and creativity in the schools is impressive.

“Being a professional musician isn’t an easy gig in the Bay Area and to provide your time and resources to make sure the next generation has access is incredibly generous. The group we traveled with took music, instruments, strings, tuners and other assorted music supplies.

“In addition we took basics, shirts, socks, etc., all things that are hard to come by in Cuba. Fleet Feet generously donated a very large duffle bag of shirts which we carried with us. You do get the sense that little is available in Cuba so all materials and supplies are precious.

“And while I was away, my sweet Fleet Feet family pitched in to help with my kids. FFMP is more than just a running group!”

Photo by Linda Hubbard (c) 2015