Reality Check

Met up with Philly Runners for their weekly Saturday run at the Art Museum. Despite being an on and off reader of their message board, I've never gone out for a run with the group. This goes back to my shyness - which is really my fear that everyone will be Super Power Ranger Ninja Turtle Cheetah fast ... and leave me in the dust.

It's been more weeks than I'd like to admit since I've gone out on a long run (i.e. more than 6 miles)... and in those weeks, I've enjoyed a lot of holiday cheer, if you know what I mean. Still, I wasn't feeling too daunted by the prospects of the 8.5 mile loop. I started out with the 'slower' group - I'm not sure what the pace was there, probably a bit above a nine minute pace. This felt too easy. Since I wanted to see where I was at fitness wise, I decided to leave this pack after about fifteen minutes and picked up the pace a bit. I kind of felt like a traitor leaving the group, but oh well.... I felt the need.

My first mile away from the pack was 8:20 - it felt fast and I knew I couldn't hold onto that pace, but, hey, if you're gonna break away from the pack, you have to at least look like there's a reason you're doing so. The next mile or two were 8:30 and I was realizing just how much fitness I had lost in a few short weeks. I struggled to hold onto 8:40 miles for the rest of the way... the last mile was closer to 8:50. It was hard work and provided me with a bit of a reality check - one I didn't like. I griped to Seebo about how much fitness I felt like I had lost in such a short period of time, but he told me that if I was looking for sympathy from him, I was barking up the wrong tree.

Well, it's a New Year. I'm feeling pretty good. The hip is behaving itself and hopefully will continue to do so.

My watch is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go get it to see what my time was. I think it was somewhere around 70 minutes.... I'll post a more exact time if/when I check my watch. Update: Real deal time was 73 minutes.