Runner's Ready, GO!

Friday, June 27, 2008


So Mr. Smarty + I picked out our big race for the year. The San Antonio Marathon in November. If you do the math, to begin training 6 months prior to the race means we need to start, uh, NOW. And since I find it so much fun to run long runs by myself, oh, wait, I don't enjoy solo long runs...I decided this weekend I would run with a group. A group of scary strangers. Scary strangers who have been running longer than I've been walking. No, there's nothing wrong with these people who get up at 5 AM every Sunday morning to run 20 miles together, when they have no threat of an upcoming race, just for the pleasure of running long distances together, then sharing a bagel or two until the rest of the plano running community is cooling down in Einstein's AC. This is what makes them strangers-this weekly ritual is quite strange, wouldn't you agree?

What makes them scary is that I have never, NEVER, run with a group before. I have been running off and on for 7 years. I have stopped counting my 5K's, run a couple of 10K's, at least two 5 milers, three 15K's, one half-marathon and one full-marathon. And never have I run with a group. Or a partner, save Mr. Smarty, for that matter. I tried to convince Mr. Smarty to run with the group last week (because he has run with them before) and ask them to be nice to me. I'm forgetting that runners in general are a nice bunch of people. My main fear is that I won't be able to keep up the group's pace. But Mr. Smarty assures me that this is a good group who run for the joy of running, not for speed. They run to run for life, not to set records. That's me. I never run for speed. I never set records. So why am I so anxious?

0 Creative People Had This To Say: