Not Such a Solitary Venture

When you think of running, you think of the lone runner, racking up mile after mile after mile.  You see the joggers on the road, ear buds attached to their phone strapped to their arm, and start pondering the long and winding road.

I started running on my high school cross country team.  It was a very different experience, meeting after school every day to run together, whether it was a 6 mile run around Crystal Lake or the evil interval “bowl” runs, named because we ran around the bottom of the hills at Veteran’s Acres park, which hosted our home course.  There was comradery and teamwork, and I always struggled running in the off-season without that support.

Including last year’s marathon.  It seems, when I’m stressed about all the things I have to do, running is the first activity to get axed, despite that it should be the last one.  It showed during the Chicago Marathon last year.  I was so slow that I saw people starting to take down the water stations.  (Yes, there was plenty of water for the runners behind me.  They just didn’t need all the tables when most of the runners had passed.)  Now, there are some runners who are happy as clams to do a 6+ hour marathon.  God bless them, but I’m not one of them. 

I joined my local run club’s Facebook group last year, but I was so busy and stressed that I never could make it to one of the runs they organized.  However, after the marathon, I was tired of being so slow, so I came out to a Saturday run.  I found a few people who run a little faster than my pace, and it felt so good to be challenged while also making new friends.  I’m now a regular on both the Wednesday night and Saturday morning runs, and I can feel the difference when I do run on my own.

Last Wednesday, I ran with someone who can run a marathon in four hours.  We were doing intervals, and I was thrilled that I was able to maintain sub-10 minute pace.  Afterwards, the social activities continued at a local watering hole.  One of the near-Boston-qualifying runners offered to run the Wisconsin Marathon with me, on the condition I do the half.  So I’ve decided to do the half instead of the full. We enjoy chatting, so it will be a lot of fun.

On Saturday, I showed up a few minutes late, right as the group started to run right past my car.  I hopped out and joined the group.  Since I’m one of the slower runners, I knew I would get passed by most of the group until I hit my pace group, and it was fun to have a few words of greeting with everyone as they breezed past me.

Eventually, I got to my group.  We’ve been running together long enough that our conversations continue from week to week, and when one of us miss a run (because life), it’s very much time to catch up on what has been happening in each other’s lives.  I had a great time, so much so that I was over a minute ahead of my pace.

So progress is happening.  A sub 2:30 half marathon is in my sights, and with my running club, it is entirely possible.