The Group Run That Wasn't

Thanks for your input on walking!  Today I didn't walk at all, but I know I need to be less hard on myself for taking little walk breaks on long runs.

Yesterday afternoon I drove to Williams Lake to visit one of the houses of youth that I work with.  I was leading them in a reflection exercise last night to determine what they need to work on to be a better group and what they are doing well together.  Several of them said they felt their group needed more physical activity.  Of course I suggested a group run for the following morning!

3 out of 11 participants said that they would like to run, but only one got up at 7 to join me.  If the program I work for was school, my role would essentially be vice principal, so I guess it's not really that cool to run with me.  Still, I was excited to have a running partner for a change.

We headed out the door and towards the hilly route I did the last time I visited, chatting for about the first 5 minutes.  We were going slightly faster than I would have liked, but I figured it would be good to push myself.  I guess those first 5 minutes were just the warm up for this guy though, because pretty soon he was dashing ahead up the hill, and I knew there was no way I could keep up.  He glanced back at first couple of intersections to make sure he was going the right way and I pointed out which way to go to encounter more hills.  Sure, this kid is 17 and full of energy, but I've been training!  I figured he would wear himself out and need a walk break or something and I would catch up, but apparently 17 year old guys don't run out of energy.  After a while he stopped looking back and so he missed the turn I wanted to take that would give us one more big climb.  I followed, but lost him completely soon after.  I took a different turn so I finished with a long, gradual climb uphill towards the house to complete a 7.5 km loop.

Because I thought I was going to be running with someone, I didn't bring my iPod.  This is the first time I've ever run without music, other than the time my battery died which was just plain frustrating.  I kinda liked it today.  Maybe it will become a regular thing - Running without music, I mean, not running with 17 year old guys - I think that was a one time thing.