A few of the many, many excuses I've had for not running with my Meters & Miles group for the last 4-5 Saturdays are: 1.) Too hot, 2.) Too early, and 3.) Don't feel like it.
Emerging from my post-marathon funk hasn't been quick or easy. I've gotten back up to running 8 miles, but that doesn't really count because it was on a treadmill. I've only run outside a handful of times outdoors since May and they've been short runs.
This weekend we didn't have a group run on Saturday due to the Fourth, so instead M&M scheduled 7-mile group runs on both Friday and Sunday mornings. Surely I could make one (or both) of those?
Well...Friday didn't happen. 7 a.m. came and went as I was delightfully snoozing away. After being a little mad at myself for being lazy, I opted to run at my parents' house at about noontime. My parents live smack dab in the middle of Oakbrook, which has a great 2 1/2 mile walking path along the main road. The terrain is fairly flat, but has one monster hill in the middle, and a couple of other little ones here and there. If I run it from my parents condo in the middle, then out to Oakbrook Drive, and run from one end to the other and back, it's just under 5 and 1/2 miles. Although it would have been a little cooler earlier (if I had been able to wake up and get motivated), the weather was pleasant at noon and there was a nice breeze. I did the run in just under an hour. I know I've done it faster, but I'm giving myself a grade of "not too shabby" for the first stab at it in a while.
After lots of food, drinks and fireworks on Saturday, I went to bed early to attempt to make it to the 8 a.m. group run. Despite a restless night of sleep, I was actually able to wake up in time to head down to Newport to Meters & Miles for the 7-miler. The weather was perfect -- 60s with a little misty rain. Upon arriving, it became clear that I was going to be the slowest in the group (by far) and I was also the only skirt. Me and my entourage of dudes planned to run the floodwall route through Newport, Bellevue and Dayton. The route being very flat, along with the weather, made it easier to push myself to go a little faster than normal. My pace was 10:23, so I finally am getting back to my pre-marathon speed.
I'm giving myself a grade of "pretty good" for Sunday, and am looking forward to improving more over the summer for the group runs... that is, assuming I can actually motivate myself to go.
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