First Team Run Session

We had our first run as a team this morning.

We met at Stanford at 8am. After a brief warm-up, they split us up into 3 teams:

1) Beginning runners
2) People who run 2-3 times a week
3) People who run 15 miles or more a week

Technically, I fall into the third bucket since Cody and I run a lot. However, since I don't look like the tall, thin, lanky people that stood in the third group, I decided to compromise and run with the second group. Among those in the second group, we were able to run either 4 miles or 5 miles.

I had just purchased the Garmin Forerunner 305, so I used it for the first time. The watch is bulky and can do some pretty fancy things (I'm still waiting for it to chop up fruit and make a smoothie), but I was able to get it to work without reading the instruction manual (I hate reading manuals). If I set it correctly, I ran 4.3 miles (I took the "5 mile loop" which was clearly not 5 miles) in a little over 46 minutes (no stops). I think it worked out to something around 10:40 per mile.

I don't think I was the last person (I was definitely not the first) so I was pretty pleased with my performance. Of course, Cody pulled me a little so that probably helped with my time.

When we finished, they made us "check-in" (to make sure that everyone came back) and greeted us with food and drinks. We waited until everyone else arrived and had a brief chat session. We left at around 10am.

I had no physical ailments, other than slight wheezing (exercise-induced asthma) towards the end of the run. If I didn't push myself to run with the crowd, I probably would have avoided the wheezing.

I really think they should have marathons based on someone's height or stride. I mean, seriously, it's not very fair for a a guy with a 4' stride to be compared with little me with a much shorter stride. Oh well, one of the injustices in the world.