Running Well With Others

I've never run well with others. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule but, by and large, I run solo.

So that explains why I may have helped start a running group.

It started innocently enough. I was chatting with a teacher/friend from Kid 1's school who is also the school's track coach.

ME: Hey Kid 1's teacher who is also the school's track coach, I need some motivation to run.
Kid 1's Teacher (name redacted): Me too.
Me: We should start some sort of running club.
Kid 1's Teacher: Yeah, we should.

And that was that. Another parent picked up the ball and, the next thing you know, I'm in a running group.

Normally, that would be the end of that story, but - like I said - I don't usually run well with others. So now what?

I went to the first meeting of the club and I was a concerned with 2 things:

1. I'm going to be the only dude.
2. I'm going to be a LOT faster than the rest of them.

So, yeah...I was kind of an asshole going into this. Shocker.

First off, I wasn't the only guy. In fact, there were 2 other guys there. One I've seen at a couple other races and he's a good :15/mile faster than I was. The other was a guy that usually does tri's, but wanted to run with us. Oh, and he's lost 150+ lbs. in the past 5 years. 

For our inaugural run, we all stuck together and, for the most part, we were only about 1:00/mile slower than usual but it really didn't matter. Better yet, we were all pretty serious about our running. Whether it was marathon training or 5K training, it didn't really seem to matter. It was a good run.

After our first run, we modified some things a bit. First off, we decided to start and end at the neighborhood pool. Duh. Secondly, adult beverages were needed after our run. Duh x 2. 

Post 4 miler. Pre-adult beverages.

Am I going to run with a group/buddy for all of my runs? No. I still like to go solo for most of them, but groups are different and different is good.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the running community is the best group of people out there. Turns out, I wasn't one of them before I joined this running group.