I'm a runner

This morning we woke up at 6:30am to meet a group in downtown Portland for a run. That's early for a Saturday. I have been following the 'Run Oregon' blog since September and they talked about free group runs every Saturday. Given that these runs are starting to get long, I figured it would be a good thing to try - even if I had to get out of bed early.

Boy was I wrong. It was an amazing thing to try. There were probably about 50 people there to run. Wow, runners are happy people. What a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning. The run supported up to 16 miles as an out-and-back, but you could turn around whenever depending on how long you needed to run. Led by Coach Jim, three pace groups were formed: one for a 3:40 marathon, one for a 4:15 marathon, and one for 5 hours I think. The interesting thing was the pace that you would be running. The 3:40 marathoners would be running at a 10:00-10:15 mile pace, the 4:15 marathoners would be running at a 12:00 mile pace. 12 minute mile! I don't even remember what that feels like!!! So, what I learned this Saturday is that long runs should be done at a VERY comfortable pace.

Given that I probably wanted to run a 10:30-11:00 minute pace, we decided to go with the fast group. For the first time I felt like I was an athlete. I was in the FAST group. We chatted a bit with a couple at the back of the pack that mentioned that they might slow down at some point. We never did though. We made it three miles and then turned around (6 miles out and back). As we turned around, we ran into a lady that had fallen back on the last hill - she asked if she could join us on our way back. Deb, as we learned her name, had a Portland Marathon 2009 finisher shirt on so I knew that I could pepper her with training questions. We ran back 3 miles, talked the whole time, and before I knew it the 6 mile run was over, we had made a new running friend, and I felt FANTASTIC!

We will be participating in the Saturday group runs from now on. It is so energizing to see all those people and to be surrounded by such great energy.

Also, I think I have officially sucked Mike into the Oregon running community. He loved it too :)