Eleven miles last Friday. The furthest distance I’ve run since February. It was agonizing to hear the alarm at 5 a.m., knowing I would have to get my muscles in gear in an hour. I have to get up at least an hour before I want to hit the road. It takes me awhile to organize my thoughts, eat something and make sure I have all the necessary items: watch, sweat hankie, the right socks, hat, sunglasses, Body Glide, allergy meds, and water bottles if I’m on a long run. If I’m not together, it seems to throw off my running groove. Maybe a little OCD. I get it honestly.
I ran with the GOTR group because I felt like I should make an effort to meet some of members of Team Tiara. As I was driving to the GOTR office, I was hoping I would be able to connect with someone who was interested in running my goal pace of 9:15-9:30. I tried not to think about how much it would suck if I had to run really or fast to have some sort of friendly conversation. I wasn't interested in a solo run. Luckily, I hooked up with Karen, a GOTR volunteer coach, who “said” she was a slow runner. It was a great run - I was even able to sprint the last 1/4 mile - and it was interesting to talk to a new person for an hour and thirty-seven minutes. I learned that Karen, like me, had only run one marathon before and she was thrilled with her accomplishment. She was glad to be able to do it for fun and didn’t seem to have the goal of being a “super runner”. I got her email address so that I could let her know our pace after I went home to calculate it. As it turned out, our relatively comfortable run resulted in an 8:48 pace instead of the 9:30 I was shooting for. She was in disbelief, said she had never run that pace and that it was a great confidence boost for her. I’m glad I was there to share it!
I gained a little more confidence myself, which is exactly what I need in my life right now…maybe if I put everything I’ve got into this training, I CAN run an 8:35 marathon pace for a 3:45 to qualify for
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