Go DetermiNation!

OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD...Do you know what Saturday was? The first training run of marathon season! YAY! Sure, I’m not running a marathon this year, but a lot of my DetermiNation buddies are, so that means I have a ton more friends to run with! We met up in Central Park early Saturday morning for introductions and the whole training spiel from Coach Ramon.

We all look super excited don’t we? Hey, it was early.

Saturday was a great day for a run. The weather was perfect. There was a nice breeze in the air. The sun was shining. Everything you could hope for. I love group runs because you find a whole group of people that run at your pace and you quickly become BFFs. Or at least BRFFs (best running friends forever).

So here’s the run recap: Since pretty much everyone else is training for the NYC marathon and that’s not until November, they started off slow, with one or two lower loops of the park. Since I’m supposed to be training for a half that is now less than 8 weeks away, I did three lower loops (total about 5.1 miles). The first two loops were super fun. I was meeting new people, chatting with old friends, and the running felt great. The last loop was a little more intense. There just so happened to be a race in the park at about the same time that I started my last loop so I was running alongside people that are much faster than I am. I know I’m not as fast as they are, but there’s something about running next to fast people that makes you go faster. My last loop was slightly under a 9 minute mile. Oops! Needless to say, I was pretty tired. Luckily there were bagels waiting for us back at the meeting spot. I slathered one with cream cheese and shoved it in my face, then went home for a nap. All in all, it was a good morning.