Strength in Numbers

Okay, first of all, it is very hard to blog, when your sister keeps IM-ing you about the Dukes of Hazard...Anyway, what I am trying to say, is that I don't know if many people know this, but Gary is "mostly" right all time. I say "mostly" because sometimes I am right. But when it comes right down to it, he has thought it out, paid attention, done his research and just always knows the right thing to do (He is going to be so happy, when he reads this). I am a" fly by the seat of my pants" kinda of gal and hopefully it is all good in the end. Then if it isn't, I drowned it in a nice ice cold Dr. Pepper and call it good.

My point is this.... Gary has joined a running group and he has told me for weeks and weeks that I need to join it. My Saturdays are all crazy right now with organizing YW basketball and I just have been kind of over running (even though I signed up for a marathon in 6 weeks--gasp!). Well, Gary went out of town this weekend and he told me to just go try it out. The group is called "Runner's Edge of the Rockies". This group meets all over Denver at 7:30am on Saturdays and has about maybe 200 members or less. I emailed the guy in charge on Friday and said I was interested in trying out the group. He pretty much said, "Heck yes, you should come and hang out." (He used a lot of exclamation marks, but he really didn't say "heck yes"--he was just very inviting....you get the idea).

I got up early on Sat., got dressed and started driving towards DU. (Luckily, Isabel is an awesome babysitter.) I was totally late, then I got lost, and then I was just going to bag it. Just then, I saw a group running. So I hurried, parked and started running with them. Well, let's just say that it was totally AWESOME!!! There were a bunch of different groups all training for different races, but mostly for the Colorado Marathon. I started running with the 4:45 pace group, but moved up to the 4:30 pace group. That means they are training to run the marathon in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Everyone runs different mileage depending on where they are in their training schedule. The trail is marked at every mile and tells you when to turn around. Since, my marathon is coming up, I decided to run the whole fourteen miles. Can I just tell you... it is so much easier running with other people. I met some really nice ladies named Julie, Amy, and Kerry. Julie kept telling me to stop running up the hills so fast, but I hate hills and want them to be done. She also kept telling me to slow down ....AND I should have listened to her because I was dying at the end. She kept talking about her friend, Garmy and what Garmy was saying to her.... it wasn't until about mile 7 that I realized she was talking about her watch/heart rate monitor (which has a GPS, tells your your mileage and your pace--I so need one of those). She was even going to drive me to my car, since I parked about 1/2 a mile from the starting line. I love her. I ended up walking to my car, but still.

Something, I learned about myself on Sat, which I kinda already knew, was....at about the last two to three miles of a long run, I am so done and I am ready to quit. Around that time, my three new friends ran a little ahead of me. I kept hanging on behind them. It was almost as if they were pulling me along. Really, it was very surreal. I also realized that I really need to work on the mental part of running and racing (The other day, I was in a class at the gym and we were running relays. The instructor said, "Come on, go faster...is this how you finish a race?" I was thinking, "Yes, this is how I totally finish a race because I am soooo tired and, really, what do I need to prove? I am old...er.).

The moral of this story is that I ran 14 miles (HOLY COW!!). I have never run that far before. There is no way, I could have done that on my own. I dreaded the thought. I have dreaded the thought of training for this marathon. But, now I am all excited again. There truly is "Strength in Numbers". It was a very cool experience. I think everyone I know should join this group and come have some fun. Who's with me?