What a great morning for a little jog with a batch of newbies. We had snow and temperatures just above the freezing mark. This is a time when most non-runners are still under their warm blankets in bed. I guess that’s why I love the looks on the faces of the participants on our first group training run.
Most of them think that every other participant will be an Olympic athlete and they’ll be left behind as the slowest runner ever. I’m sure that some have even had trouble sleeping the night before, not knowing what to anticipate.
One of the common themes that you hear from most of them is ‘..I’ve never run more than a mile or I haven’t run since I was a kid’. Add to this the fact that a majority of them haven’t been running outside in the elements and never in a group setting, boy I love these moments.
Now it’s my job to not only get them through the required miles but also to make sure that everyone is at ease while doing it. This is when you bring out all of the jokes and running antidotes that you can think of. The other part of the job is being in multiple places at the same time.
We’re fortunate enough to have our training runs at a local park that has a six-mile loop. So I get the chance to run back and forth in an attempt to run with every participant. It always fun to run up on some of them while they’re taking their unofficial walk break.
So the journey begins for a new Team in Training season!
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