Run Club

Today was my first time leading the City Sports run club. It was a blast. We started off at the store and ran to Lloyd Hall and back. It was gorgeous weather for a run.

Running down Walnut Street with everyone out was quite interesting. We had to dodge a lot of people and cars. As I stopped at a light, there were several people still with me. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go down to the Schuykill Banks loop from our side of Walnut. That wasn't a problem though.

When I started on the loop, I was really able to pick up the pace. A lot of people started dropping off. One guy hung with me quite well though, so I kept the pace fairly quick. I'm not sure if in the future, I should hold back a little bit.

As we hit the short hills, I could tell he was laboring. I slowed it down a bit then. It was really funny because I didn't realize that we were going to stop at Lloyd Hall. The pace was a little difficult for me, but I could've definitely kept it up for the rest of the run. Instead, we waited for the entire group to get to Lloyd Hall.

We then turned around and headed back. This time, in addition to the guy, a woman hung with me. The two of them ran together at a pretty good clip. I could tell the run was taking its toll on them though. They started to fall back, so I slowed the pace a bit. They basically wanted to walk up the stairs, while I preferred to run them. I waited at the top for them to catch up though. We ran together down Walnut Street. The woman backed off quite a bit towards the end.

I was impressed to hear that she was 42 years old. She looked about 10 years younger and was in good shape. The pace definitely wasn't easy for her, but I'm sure it was a good workout. She said she had run some marathons before, including Boston.

I was worried before the run that the pace would be too slow or that we might have someone very fast that would make me work really hard. The workout was actually perfect. It wasn't too easy, but wasn't too difficult either. I'll run with them again and likely add it as my second run of the day. I might have to work on pacing a little more, but that'll come with more runs.

It was fun to socialize a bit too. I got to talking with the woman and guy that I ran with for most of the run. I also had dinner with one of the employees from the store and also the Mizuno rep who ran with us. All in all, it was a good time.

Tomorrow, I'm thinking I'm going to hit the trails again. I'll like head over to the Forbidden Drive area. The short run today, didn't bother my injury, but I want to go out in the trails again anyways. The rest of the week, I'll try to get back on the pavement. This has turned out to be an excellent taper for the half marathon. Hopefully my Achilles is fully healed.

4.25 miles - 35:11 (8:17 pace)