Running with a group: A cautionary tale

I was reminded of How to Choose Your Running Partners, a podcast that I heard a while back. This morning I joined the Running Room group for a long run. All in all there were about 10 people made up of half-marathon and marathoner runners.

They charted a 16k run for the morning. I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to go the distance because I didn’t bring water or gels. Plus I’ve just started training. Meh. I would just wing it. If my legs cried bloody murder, I would simply turn around.

Now I’m used to relative silence on my long runs. One of the best things about running is time spent marvelling at the great outdoors. I haven’t run with a group of people (and strangers at that) for a super long time.

The group “leader” said she wanted everyone to run together this time. So off we ran in a weird pod like formation. I was in the middle. I could have easily reached out and smack everyone on the head. I didn’t want to start off fast because I would have bonked at some point.

I stayed in the back where I could hear one Chatty Cathy ramble on and on about stuff. Incessant chatter drives me CRAZY. Chatting here and there is great. Maybe I was still asleep but it was annoying as hell. A few kilometres and tougher terrain into the run, the group spread out. I was relieved. I need space.

The hills nearly killed my legs. I guess doing deadlifts yesterday was not a good move. I found my strong once we moved out of the snowy trails and on to the road. I wanted to run FAST. But the group leader kept yelling SLOW DOWN. I wanted to sprint off ahead just to shut her up. If a few people want to pick up the fucking pace, let them pick up the pace!  (I wasn’t the only one.) This was not a running clinic and most of us did not need instruction. Grrrrrr!

Whew! That’s out of my system. Yes I know I should relax. I’m relaxing now. Overall it was a good run. It was nice running with Karen and Matt again. Likely I will go back to run with the group again – just not with this group! I look forward to running with Karen/Mark’s marathon group.

This Week’s Training Recap: 

It’s been a tough week. My work schedule flipped. As a result everything else in my life was turned sideways. That’s when I have to draw on my skills of multi-tasking and organization.

I didn’t sleep well all week. As you know this usually catches up with me in a couple days. I’m brain drained. I just smile and wave.

I went to CrossFit 4x at 8 a.m. Then on Saturday I did some extra time at the box working on some skills. I ran twice – Saturday (8K) and Sunday (16k). I would have liked to have run during the week but the stars did not align.

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