Monday, July 14, 2008

Advantages of a Running Group

1. Obviously the people to run with is a big one. Not to mention water, powerade and jolly ranchers and starburst at the water stop (set up at a central point where you did loops of no more than 4 miles before you got back to the water).

2. Yes, someone to get you out of bed because you know there are others running...and I was able to get up and run with the group at 7 am and it really wasn't THAT bad...

3. A whole bunch of interesting new people to talk to that WON'T ask "how many miles is that marathon? Are you going to win? Or look at you funny when you talk about running 15 miles

4. Getting to know new people (main reason I joined). I ran and talked with at least 4 or 5 different people at points today and am still kind of running with one girl I met first Tuesday night who ran 3:28 in March...someone right around my goal time!! And she figures that's about what she wants to run this fall!!

5. People to agonize with you up that last really, really steep hill!!

6. People to get you to knew places to run. I had never known about the trails at Fort Snelling before...shaded and mostly soft!!

7. Water and powerade along with a HUGE bag of gummy bears, red vines, cookies and granola at the finish.

8. People to go for coffee with after!!Yes, it was a fun day...and there are a couple of hotties...(I went to coffee with two of them!). Not quite as nice as my gym hottie, but it's something new...Most of the guys are married, or I'm debating if they are straight, but what does it matter...it's all about eye candy right?

So those are the advantages. After a rough week, planned 14 today, ended up being 15 (which is what I actually wanted) and it felt good. Averaged 8:52 overall, had an 8:17 and 8:30 near the end, lost signal for the very last so it came up slow, but I'm guessing it was close to that and I'm happy with that as that is more than I hoped for. Now if only I can keep that up for the 20 milers when they come!!

Mile 1 - 9:22
Mile 2 - 8:56
Mile 3 - 9:00
Mile 4 - 8:55
Mile 5 - 8:37
Mile 6 - 8:47
Mile 7 - 7:46 (I know this one was off and probably averaged into the next one)
Mile 8 - 9:26
Mile 9 - 8:33
Mile 10 - 8:44
Mile 11 - 8:37
Mile 12 - 8:17
Mile 13 - 8:13
Mile 14 - 8:41
Mile 15 - 9:37 (had a huge hill to climb)

Oh, one more advantage...was done before 10 am...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love running groups! Glad you are enjoying yours. Congrats on the run.

teacherwoman said...

I have never ran with a group... still don't know if I would like it. I am too slow!

MNFirefly said...

Sounds like a great group. I have never received goodies AFTER my run.

JustRun said...

Fun!
That's probably what I need.

Nat said...

Are you training with TNT or Lifetime or maybe TC Running? Just curious. I may train with a group again next fall.

Steve Stenzel said...

Nice run!!! And I can understand how great it is to NOT constantly hear "how far is the marathon you're running?....."