Tribute to My Running Group

I've been running with a group of runners in the area since 2004. Actually before that the only running I did was the occasional 2-3 miler at the gym on the hamster wheel. Or in my early days in the Military I thought 3 miles in 30 minutes was pretty good. I laugh out loud as I read what I just typed. 10 min./mile for 3 miles. That's hardly worth getting out of bed for these days. Unless it's the second part of a 2-a-day and you're just trying to get the miles under your feet. Even then your short distance fast runner friends would call you a bum.

But, I digress. Like I said, I've been running with a group of runners in the area since 2004. This group has been the best thing to happen to me in a while. Every morning, every morning, they run. Now not the whole group but, there are factions (all friendly) and between either the core group or any faction of the group you can find a run somewhere in the city every single morning. I don't know about you but, the thought that someone is "waiting" on me just helps me to show up. Now they are not really waiting on me and everyone expects that if you want to run with the group you show up on time. Because they won't "wait". So, I guess it's something like, "We will wait for you until it is time to go and then we're going". I like that because I can safely say that at 1 minute past 6am they are gone but, they positively will not leave before 6. I mean 5:59 is unacceptable to the group and is considered rude, we all leave together and we wait just in case that last minute person is still trying to get there on time.

I certainly would not be running still if it had not been for the group and all the new relationships I've developed out of it. Bunch of fun folks all ages and all speeds all backgrounds. Imagine that, a diversity of runners. Well they're income must be pretty up there. After all, the simplest, most natural sport on the planet still requires expensive shoes and technical shirts and shorts. And if you can afford the Garmin 305, you've got to get that, too.

Interested in more Garmin related stories? See these fine sites:

How Accurate is a GPS Running Watch? | ClearPathGPS - How Accurate is a GPS Running Watch? By Mick Doolan. There are many times that I have been asked, just how accurate is a running watch with GPS? Can they really tell you how fast and far you are running? As a case ... Timex Run Trainer (R.I.P. Garmin 305) « Running With T1 - After many, many miles of running with my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305, it recently kicked the bucket. I used RunKeeper on my iPhone for a while and I like it, especially for programming intervals and for the automatic posting ...

Finally, A Decent Long Run

So, this Saturday I ran 20 miles with my running group. It was the first long run in a while where I did not feel like I might not finish. The 18 miles two weeks earlier and the 16 miler two weeks before that both left me feeling like I might be done with marathons. OK. we all know that cannot be the answer. I'm really not sure why I've been so energy depleted. But, this run was quite a bit different.

When we start on Saturdays for our long runs we begin at the lake and run along it for about 4 miles before head out into the nearby neighborhood. The neighborhood is where the butt whipping begins. Between the numerous hills (mere inclines for some but, they're all hills to me) and the nasty camber of the streets, it seems like the stress never ends. After the neighborhood whipping we return to the lake for another 5k before reaching the end. The humidity adds its own brand of malaise to the run. No matter, we all prevailed.

Since I'm resting all my efforts on a strong performance at the marathon in December, West Palm Beach, I really should not over do it on the miles for the next few weeks. My plan is to run 20 miles of the Denver marathon and walk the final 6 miles. Of course, I'm not certain that I can walk 6 miles. Imagine that. I must have run 700 miles this year but I have little belief that I can do anything like 6 miles of walking. Maybe I'll do some form of the Galloway thing. How about 10 minutes of running then walking for a minute or run 5 miles then walk a mile. I'm still working out on some ideas.