Running club (!!!)

This post's for you, Tricia. Yup. I went.

I never thought I'd make it. My eldest had a volleyball game after school, and I drove him, plus his siblings, plus two friends. We didn't get home until after 5pm. I still had supper to make. By the time I'd whipped up supper it was ten to 6. Running club meets at 5:30. But the coach had told me that they warm up for half an hour, then run. And that they run in the park. I was feeling antsy. I really needed to get out. So I downed a banana, threw on my running gear, and ran for the park. It was so dark. But at least there might be other people running at the park, I figured ... maybe even the running club.

I ran fast (or tried to) and started doing the loop that was lit up. A few runners went by. Nope, nope, nope, not the running club. I'd run about 4 and a half kilometres by myeslf when I spotted a big group gathering at the parking lot along my loop. I almost lost my nerve and ran by, but I thought okay seriously what do I have to lose? So I stopped and introduced myself to the guy who I thought must be the coach. And he was. He said they were just getting going on their speedy stuff and I could join in, or watch, or chat, or whatever I wanted. So I joined in. I'd come to run after all.

Wow. I am soooooo not fast. We did a drill where we ran 400 metres as fast as we could, then walked for 200, then turned around and ran 400, then walked for 200, and repeated the drill all over again. Immediately after that, we ran 1100 metres at a pace that was meant to be comfortable but not slow, ie. pretty darn fast for me. For the first part of the drill I kept up, toward the middle of the pack, but by the time we headed for the "comfortable" 1100m loop, I realized I'd slipped toward the back. And I never caught up again. We did the full drill a second time. And then the group headed into a third round. By that first sprint of the third round, I realized my sprint was looking pretty lame and I was having to run hard during my 200m "rest" in order to catch up to the tail end of the group to start all over again. (Though there were maybe two or three girls who were just behind me.) At this point, the coach called out in a friendly way to tell me that I didn't have to do the whole thing. He also said, "Your attitude's too good! You probably got all 85s in school didn't you?" And I'm like, heh, he's got me pegged. Except it was more like 90s. Once a keener, always a keener.

Not everyone in the group kept going. So I didn't feel like a total slacker for stopping after that last sprint. But a bunch of those runners. Wow. They just didn't slow down at all.

I think I'm hooked. I hope so. Because if I can commit to this and show up and do this, two or three times a week, I think I'll get faster. Or at least I'll find out if I can get faster. Something that made me feel good was hearing that the other woman in the group who ran the Hamilton marathon did it in 3:45. She was bummed because she'd been aiming for 3:35 but went out too fast and crashed. So I actually ran it faster than her. She didn't do the whole drill either. She was recovering. So I guess I could have said I was recovering too. Which I probably am.

By the time I ran home, I'd been gone awhile. Still laundry to hang, supper to eat and clean up from, homework to supervise, kids to put to bed, and now I'm bloggin and those darn dishes STILL aren't done. But I feel pretty good. Way better than I felt for most of the day. It's always better to get out. I think I've found my mental health boost. I need to remember that, and do it no matter what. I'm so hoping I can make this a regular thing and keep getting out in evenings. Commit to a year.

Next running club: Sunday morning. I'm going to have to swing some carpooling for a kid's birthday party in order to get there, but I'd like to try.

And I ran 14.5km tonight. No wonder I was feeling pretty worn out by the end! I'd never push myself that hard all on my own. There's just no way. And I like being pushed. I think the coach thought I was slightly nuts when he asked how it was, and I said FUN!