Moses parted the Red Sea, talked to a burning bush, and taught me a little something about pace. Ok, so it wasn’t the same guy exactly, but a guy named Mo did teach me a little something something about pace the other day.
I signed up for this 1 day morning training run group. That’s was more than a mouthful of words for a sentence I know. The group was near work and I figured hell, might as well, and best yet it’s on the same block as my office. The goal of the group was to run a total of 16 minutes as far and as fast as you could, so that you’d end up at the same place in a loop.
When I arrived the group was comprised of all men save myself for a total of 6 runners. Oh yay. Everyone had different physical builds, but all tall and all experienced runners. As soon as the timer went off the 6’2 lanky guy went flying down the street with one other guy trailing. Two others paced quicker than me and were mid pack. I sped off trying to keep up, but honestly I was not in shape for the pace they were going. This tall built guy hung back behind me for a while, and when I was struggling to breathe he caught up. Clearly he was way faster than I am, but was kind enough not to leave me behind.
Mo: Hey, you should relax your shoulders. The reason why you’re struggling is when your shoulders are up, you can’t breathe.
Me: *heave* Oh. [relaxing my shoulders a bit] Ok. *pant* *pant* How… much… time…
Mo: You’re doing good, but we have a bit of time left. I’ll let you know where to turn.
Me: Ok. [In my head that meant not even close to 16 minutes. I slowed my pace to a more manageable tread]
Mo: That’s better! You’re doing good.
Me: Oh yeah, I can… almost… talk again… *pant*
Mo: Yup that’s how you should be pacing. Doing good. Almost there. [But I knew we weren’t even close]
At the turn around point I lead the pack for like 2 minutes before everyone passed me again. As the first set was passing…
Mo: Hey now, there’s that competitive spirit. As soon as they went to pass, you picked up.
Me: I didn’t even notice that. LOL.
Seeing our starting point again I raced to the end. Man I think I might have to walk my marathon path before actually doing it, because I need to visualize and pace for the distance in my mind to be able to really pace well. Yarg. Finished with the rest of the group and everyone was chit chatting while I quietly caught my breathe. Man. I kind of suck at this, seriously. I’m tuning out lamenting how I suck when I hear Mo say to the others:
Mo: Yeah this young one went easy on my because of my new shoes.
Me: I assure you, that wasn’t the case. Thanks for saying that though.
We all looked down at his shoes, as he and the 6’2 guy chatted about them. They were the Hoka One. Sweat beaded off my face onto my ponytail and then collected to drip onto the sidewalk as we walked back to the locker rooms.
Thanks Mo. Shoulders down, go at my own pace. Breathe.
Days till Marathon: 217
Mileage: 1.6 miles
Pace: 9:30/mi
Met Along The Way: Moses, Prophet of Pace
