I finally caved in…

After years and years of running by myself, I have actually joined a local running group.

I have had my GPS watch (Garmin ForeRunner405) for a little over a year…

…and according to my calculations, I have run far enough to go from Virginia Beach, VA to Lexington, KY.   That is only about 1.5 miles a day, and that doesn’t seem like much to me…but running to Kentucky sounds more impressive.

So let’s go with the more impressive statistic.

All of that running…except for two 1/2 Marathons and a full Marathon, have been running alone…and now I am going to mix it up a bit.

I met last night with a group of people running the hills at a local landmark.  Hill running must be good for you, because I didn’t enjoy it.

Comparing running hills to eating brussel spouts would accurate.  

Just to add insult to injury, 12 hours later, I showed up at another event to run a fast paced five miles…with a 1/2 mile warm up and cool down.

The interesting portion of this was meeting new people…with no introduction.

There were eight individuals at my first gathering.  

The co-ordinator of the event introduced himself and they went around the circle.

One by one, each person bragged described their training and recent race results.  

I was seventh to go, and since the whole thing resembled some kind of sick “Runners Anonymous” meeting in a parking lot…

I said, “Hi.  My name is Steve Burgess and I am a runner.  I haven’t been running in 27 hours.”

(silence)

Joking about runners TO runners doesn’t go over well.