5 miles 7:10 pace
Belmar Running Club social run
Worked on Wednesday from 7 am to 8 pm so did not eat dinner until 9p. FINALLY went to sleep somewhere around 1 am—just could not settle in as I am dealing with some pain issues. When my neuropathy is kicking, I have sleep disturbance, which compounds the pain issues further over the next few days…sigh…woke at 5am, as I had to be at work to meet a coworker at 6:45 am.
All of this is leading to why I ran with a social club this evening…stay with me….SO the kids are on Spring Break and are working out during the morning while I am at work, so I have not had anyone to run with at all this past week. I opted to take 2 days off (which turned into 3 due to crazy work yesterday) to rest my feet a bit.
Left work a bit early and went home for a nap—which was a crazy nap. The wind has been kicking up and so my dogs have been absolutely traumatized leading them to be super needy. One dog literally crawled into my shirt, one dog slept on my head and the third I used as a pillow.
Woke at 5pm and realized that I could just make the Running Club group run. Since I normally coach after school, I have not yet had the pleasure to join them. As we were gathering, without notice, a few of the guys took off and started the run. I was caught behind a woman that had been long leashing her 2 rather large dogs that were very interested in going with me. Every time I tried to pass, they would get really excited and try to move with me. After politely (or maybe not) informing her that I really was trying to pass them, she gently corrected them and I had to go way out towards the street to get around them.
I spent the next half mile trying to catch up to the second to lead group. I tried to engage in some conversation, but at the sound of a feminine voice the pace shot up dramatically as the guys clearly are not used to running with a woman. The chase for the lead pack had begun! AND I like challenges. Just like with my boys, I decided that whatever pace the testosterone laden fools were going to set was the pace we were going to keep. After a mile at 6:50 pace, the guys began to realize that they were not going to shake me…the moment comes in every run of this sort where the guys realize that I am going to keep the pace, they sigh and begin to fade off. Right before that happens, their breathing begins to change signaling their distress or the fact that they really are at their tempo or subtempo pace. I call that “breaking the group”. Now that was NOT my intention in joining a social run. Why can’t guys just run with me without it needing to turn into a (for them) a race?? SO, it becomes my social obligation to break them, literally, of this habit!
Ate up the lead pack by mile 2.5 and pushed them into the water station at the local Runners Roost store. The lead pack guys made a quick transition and tried to leave before the group had a chance to get some water. WELL, the chase was on once again…they did not learn the first time…suckers!
Chased down the lead pack and this time caught them before the first half mile, but had to push 6’s to do so. Started talking with them quite conversationally, and let them slow to 7:20. At a lull in the conversation though, I picked back up to 7:00 to help keep them honest. Needless to say, they fell off hard before we returned to our meeting place. Jogged around for a bit to keep loose until the rest of the group arrived.
It really did not have to go down that way. If they had only held their comfortable pace, I would have been happy doing 7:30’s or 8’s. They chose to engage in running combat in an effort to ditch me, so they needed a lesson. Went to the social snack time and giggled as some of those same guys had a hard time walking after sitting for a spell….I really would have just been fine going their pace but was not going to be relegated to sit back with the women in my “place”. Can’t wait to go back to see if they want to try this again… |