Good People... and One Dumb Guy...

I went to my first 10K Training run last night, not knowing what to expect. I really like the instructor/mentors and the other runners. I didn't know anyone there and even though most people were there with a friend or two, I didn't feel out of place or unwelcome. I chatted with a couple women around my age and they were very friendly.  Most gals who had gone through this training before had a handheld water bottle, so one of the staff at Fleet Feet (the owners organize the training programs), helped me find one in the store to buy and talked to me about NUUN tablets, which I knew nothing about. So I got the berry and lemon tea flavor nuun to try out during that training run because it was hot, like about 80 degrees hot at 6:30 in the evening. I got my nuun water all set up in my new water bottle and then the group set out. All 120 of us! We were separated into two groups, the one I am in is for runners wanting to work on extending mileage, starting out at 3 miles, and will be at 6.5 miles at end of training. The other group is starting at 4 miles and going to 10, I think, and they are working on increasing speed.

We walked from the downtown store to the park entrance where we run (the advanced group ran to the park). We started with some plyometric (sp?) exercises. The trainers don't like to use stretches prior to running, but do lots of stretching post-run. Then, because of the heat, we set out for an easy run to get initial times for our own easy pace, which we will use throughout our training. My first mile was 10:00 right on the nose. I felt ok running the first 1.5 miles, except that I had prepped by drinking a lot of water all day, knowing it was going to be hot, so it was a good thing there was a restroom at the 1.5 mile turnaround! After that turnaround, I felt really good and finished up with a 31:05, which included the bathroom break. I loved the nuun, but got tired of holding the water bottle towards the end of the run. It was nice to be able to sip water when I wanted to, instead of trying to gulp a bunch when it's available at water stops (I choke every time, I'm not very coordinated).

So, the park was busy, with lots of people coming to run, bike, walk their dogs, cool off in the creek, etc.  When we were about 1/4 mile from our turn around, we could hear a guy yelling "NO! NO! NO!" up ahead. As we rounded the corner, two very large dogs came running up out of the creek onto the trail and headed straight to two dogs that were on leashes held by two young women. The dogs came up all macho and aggressive. The girls were doing their best to keep their dogs calm and not let the situation turn into a fight. The dumb guy the dogs belonged to had no control over them at all, they completely ignored him. Everyone was telling him to grab his dogs, but he kept trying to call them to him. He was finally able to grab the collars and haul the dogs back down to the creek. What a scary experience for the two gals, who were being responsible and had complete control over their dogs, and for everyone else there. Irresponsible dog owners are beyond irritating to me. I have dogs. I love dogs. I am a dog person, but in a park area like that, you have to leash your dogs! These dogs were completely untrained and out of control. That is just unnecessarily dangerous! After the turnaround on the way back, we passed him again. The dogs were in the creek, snarling and growling with each other as this guy just sat there and watched them. It was play fighting, but extremely aggressive. As I got down the trail a bit, a girl was running with a little Jack Russel terrier on a leash and she was headed their way. I had to stop her and warn her of the idiot with his aggressive dogs on the loose. That's how one stupid person can wreck an enjoyable, relaxing evening run for a bunch of people. Jumping off my soapbox now. ;)

I can't wait for my next training run Saturday morning! My hubby is going to bring his bike and ride in the park  while I get my training run in. He is sticking to get-back-into-shape goal. Yay for you, hubby!!

Shelly

Living...  with goals to improve my strength and running distance.
Laughing...  at myself when I get nervous about being with people who love running as much as I do.
Loving...  the way my body feels after a good, sweaty run.