Group run number 1

Statistics:
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 57:11

Stats/Track map


Observations:

Well, getting out of bed at 5:30 is not easy, especially when I wasn't able to get to bed early. The problem is that I wasn't tired early, so I fell asleep somewhere around 1:00. So, not much sleep.

But, I did get myself going, ate a quick small breakfast, and jumped on the train. I was supposed to get there at 6:15, but my train got there around 6:25, so I was a bit hurried. Not a big deal, though. I got to Fleet Feet by 6:30, stashed my gear, and headed out to the start, which is near the Ben Franklin statue in the park (see the map). We had a short introduction, and grouped up according to our pace teams.

The weather was just about perfect. Mid 50's, partly-cloudy, pretty. So we started heading out to the path and started our run. The way it works is you run two-by-two with your group so there's room on the path for people to pass if necessary. The first person I was next to was listening to her headphones, so I didn't really have anyone to talk to, which kind of sucked. Thankfully, we got shuffled around after a mile or so, and I ended up talking to a guy named Bernie. After talking for a while, I came to discover that Bernie was a contestant on The Biggest Loser a couple years ago, which was pretty awesome. He'd lost 130 pounds! I thought that was really impressive. Now he travels around the country giving talks about motivation and fitness and lifestyle. He's training for his third marathon! Wow! After the half-way turnaround I got to talk to someone else, who turned out to be a producer for WGN radio, and it turned out we had some mutual friends in the improv world, so that was cool.

Anyway, it was an easy run. I chose the 11:00 per mile pace group because they said that the Saturday runs should be easy. They're just about logging distance, not pushing speed. I think we ended up doing more like 11:30, according to my timer, but that's not a big deal. It just felt really good to be out by the lake, running with the group. I'm already looking forward to Wednesday's group run. Normally I'll be doing the 6:30 PM group run, but I have tickets to go see Conan O'Brien that night, so I am going to try to make the 6:00 AM morning run. Crazy, I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do!


Next:
Monday - 40 minutes easy run