Hello blog lovers.
No rest for the wicked! Actually, I was looking forward to this evenings run, a nice gentle 3 miler. My solo runs and parkruns are all about pushing myself just that little bit more each time, my club run is all about helping encouraging my fellow PWR's, chatting, socialising and having fun while running! And can you believe that we do all of that in the rain!
It's not easy for most people to get out into the rain to go running for fun! It's not motivating, it feels yucky and the thought of cosying up on your chair with a nice hot chocolate is so much better. Mind you, some people thrive running in the rain, as long as it's not cold of course, our LittleJ quite likes running in the rain, as long as it's not cold.
Last week I had somehow managed to do my group out of half a mile, so to make up for it I chose one of our flattish routes which I know is 3 miles long, but I was going to try and push them along just a little bit. Encourage them to keep up with the 13:30 m/mi pace. After our count up, there were 11 of us in my group this evening, we ran out of the gate and turned right ran along to Kingsway and then turned right again. I kept a careful eye on my Garmin, trying to keep my pace at 13:30 m/mi all the way to the top of the road. When I got there with Becky and Auriol and Selena and some of the other faster ones we waited just a few minutes for the sweepers to get to me, this week they were Ruth and Rachel. And then I told them all that I was running at 13:30 m/mi and just left that out there. "So you're saying we need to run a bit faster" was one of the comments that came back to me! I think they got the message! I told them that for this run I will be pushing everyone just a little bit more than usual, to try and keep our pace as near to the advertised pace as I could. With the weather like it is, wet and horrid, it could work in our favour. Everyone wanting to get home earlier.
I think we were all running quite nicely together, not too much hanging about waiting. I sent the faster runners on to little excursions and if they wanted to run back to the sweepers to keep on moving then they could. It worked really well. We did lose one of our runners at the very beginning of the run, due to injury, but he was quite happy to walk home! In fact we met him near to his house, he must have taken the short cut to get there!
Our route took us all along Crescent Drive, along Shepperton Road and then right along Crofton lane to Crofton Road! All the time we were running at a nice steady pace, all though at one point we were running a lot slower than we should be! So I just encouraged them along, and considering they are some of my bestest friends I encouraged them in my own unique way! It's a good job they know me really!
From running over the bridge we turned left onto Beaumont road, and we were finally on the homeward stretch. The rain continued to come down, a little harder now, but our smiles were on our faces as we ran the finally stretch home! Not too bad, 3 miles, in the dark and in the rain in under they hour! Brilliant! A nice stretch out, with one of the group 9 runners as well, as he had come back early too!
Geeky stats for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment