Distance: 11.00 mi
Time: 01:20:25/7:18 ppm
I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to start running with groups. This will still be a difficult task for workouts, but the CRC makes this remarkably easy for long runs. A club board member - usually Aaron or Cailtin, as far as I can tell - usually makes a post Friday or Saturday night asking where the Saturday or Sunday long runs will be. No one had commented so I made a post saying I wanted to do about 12 at McMullen no later than 7am, with a pace of about 7:30 per mile. A few people commented on it saying they would be there around the same time, including Ben and Megan Hovis, Jason Martin, and some others I didn't know. Boom, I had a group.
I actually showed up to the Trader Joe's side of the greenway a little late and saw a group of about 10 runners in front of Starbucks. I knew this was part of my group so I put my shoes on quickly and headed to the greenway. As they jogged by I made note that this didn't exactly look like the group I was trying to meet, so I waited, and found another runner who looked just as confused as I did. I made my introductions to Youssef (sp?) and, after realizing we had missed our connection, we both trotted down the greenway. Youssef and I discussed jobs and running plans and the usual things one might say to someone after a first introduction, and I realized he would make an excellent long run partner. We actually didn't say a whole lot but our pace started out right at 7:30 per mile and quickly dropped. Eh, Youssef, this pace is a little quicker than how I usually start for long runs, hehe....heh...
About three miles in we came across Megan Hovis, Jason Martin, and the "Godfather," Bill Shires. Aha! For some reason I kept running while Youssef turned around and hollered, "You want to run with them? I'm going with them." I slammed on brakes, turned around, and joined what was now a group of five. Megan is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon and the wife of Providence Day coach Ben Hovis, an acquaintance of mine from back in the day who would later be joining us; Jason is an acquaintance from way back in the Resurrection Lutheran days who also knows the Eggers family very well; Bill is about 45 years old and still runs marathons in about the 2:40 range. In other words, this was a good group to stumble upon on a Sunday morning. I joined the conversation while noting the "total average pace" on Running Buddy was quickly dropping from 7:30 to 7:25 to 7:22...
Megan also writes the nutrition column for the CRC newsletter, so I mentioned to her that I'd bonked two workouts on account of stomach issues this week. She said that was happening to everyone lately and could be attributed to the heat. I talked to Jason about coaching and training and when Brian McMahon joined us, I talked to him about the NBA Finals. We later met up with Ben, and Youssef went back to Rea Road. I ran a little bit further with them before turning around, as I didn't want to do more than 12 miles for the day. I think Megan and Bill ended up doing 22 and I am completely confident they were running well under 7:00 pace by the end of it.
My average pace was down to 7:18 for 9 miles and I clicked off a 6:50 by myself before slowing down some on the last mile. So yeah, this was a good run. I doubt I would have been able to hold the pace for more than a couple more miles, though.
Now time to destroy some breakfast and watching the Indy 500 before seeing my buddy Joel get hitched! It's going to be great weekend!
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