My First Group Run Experience... or Lack Thereof

A week and a half ago, I went to the farmer's market and stumbled across a stand for the American Cancer Society (ACS). They were there to talk about sponsorship/etc for their cause for upcoming half marathons and marathons. The sign is what initially drew me to their stand, because I figured I could use pretty much any and all the information I could get about training for this half marathon dealio.

These people turned out to be like the NICEST people ever, and about ten minutes after talking to them, I'd somehow agreed to coming to their next "fun run" group session on June 14th at 6:30 PM. Twist my arm, really.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I am pretty staunchly against running in groups- primarily because I am S.L.O.W. Not only that, but there is no way that I'm going to be making any conversation with my fellow runningmates because I'm too busy gasping my way through a run... and chitchatting is the LAST thing on my mind.

Needless to say, I was more than a little nervous about this first group run of mine, but a commitment is a commitment and, quite frankly, I was kind of curious about how this was going to turn out. Anyway, the bus ride home from work was spent mentally pumping myself up for this group run. By the time I got home, I was actually getting kind of excited...


And/or terrified. Whatever.

I figured I might as well play the part of a "real" runner and guzzle down some water...

And sure, a cookie. Why not? It had oatmeal in it! And walnuts! Fuel, if you will.

So, there I was enjoying my second bite of oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookie, when I decided to double check the time and place for this whole running group extravaganza.

Just as I thought... meet at Stanleys. Just as I thought... meet at 7:30...

Yeah- I hope you did a double take of that picture. Because I certainly did.

6:3o?!?!

Immediately, my eyes darted to my DVR clock...

Big. Fat. Buzzkill. I mean, Stanley's is close enough but not SO close that I could get there in 7 minutes unless (irony of ironies) I ran there.

Which was so not going to be happening, let's be honest.

Sigh. It was such a gorgeous night though, that it wasn't too hard to convince myself to get outside and get my 3 miler on. 3 miler!! I know, right?!? I was PUMPED to be on my last week of this whole 5K-precursor-before-beginning-my-half-marathon-training schedule!

You know, it's kind of funny. After all this mental dread regarding this running group, I actually was genuinely disappointed that I missed out on this evening's group run. So disappointed, in fact, that I think I'm going to take it upon myself to find that ACS farmer's market stand this weekend to see when their next group run will be. (I mean, I already tried tweeting them about the next day/time of their group run, but have yet to receive a response. Hmmph.)

Who would've thought? Actually seeking OUT group run opportunities? I think those post-3 miler endorphins are still in high gear here...