Earlier this week, I was browsing Facebook and a training run for this marathon popped up in my feed. The run was open to anyone and was being hosted by a local running club. I've been wanting to make some running friends, so this event intrigued me.
I got up early this morning and headed out to the Sports Basement. I love this place, but kind of a pain in the butt to get to. I walked half a mile to the bus stop, took the bus and then had to walk to last mile to Sports Basement. When I got off the bus, so did another girl. She was wearing her running gear and some sweet Mizuno's - so naturally I assumed she was headed to the training run as well. I assumed right.
We became fast friends. Sports Basement was buzzing with people. We had a little bit of down time before starting the run, so we checked out the Mizuno booth. Mizuno was sponsoring today's run and they had test runners (shoes). I was wearing my Wave Rider 15s, so they fitted me with a loaner pair of the new Wave Rider 16s. They are a full ounce lighter and were a rad pink/salmon color. I was a little hesitant to do a long run in them, but the fit was so simliar to my own shoe that they ended up working out.
We headed out to warm up shortly after 9. I did a fast head count while stretching and there were more than 70 people attending the run! Amazing! I signed up to do the 10 mile course and started off at a good pace with my new friend. We were pacing the same as one of the coaches from the running club - she was really awesome. My new friend fell back after the first few miles and I got to chat with the coach. She was really awesome and we were having great conversation which made the miles fly by. Around mile 7 or 8 we were running through Fisherman's Wharf and I saw a guy I went to high school with - guess he is here on vacation...how random.
I finished the run with another lady from the running club. My time was a little slower than my 10-miler two weeks ago (finished at 1:34), but I was still really happy with the pace. If I can maintain a simliar pace during the race, I'll definitely drop some minutes off my PR.
When we got back to the Sports Basement they had a table with bagels and juice. Yum! Plus, all the runners got a 20% discount. I couldn't resist picking up another pair of shoes - so now I have 2 new pairs around for backup. I'm sure the hubby loves this.
So yeah...awesome run today and I'm signed up to meet up for next week's training run. I'm also looking into officially joining the running club. I met so many amazing people today and they pretty much sold me on it.
Are you part of a running club? How do you like it?
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