The 'benefits' of running with a partner....

I have changed up my running routine a little bit for this upcoming Knoxville marathon. I am running 3 times during the week, and my long run is on Saturday mornings rather than Sundays. There are multiple reasons for this, but the biggest being the Knoxville Track Club has a group run Saturday mornings for marathon preparation. I cannot stress how awesome it is to have the Knoxville Track Club here in town. They put on SO many races and training runs that people who have a desire to run in Knoxville really don't have an excuse not to.

That being said, there were about 50-100 people that showed up Saturday morning for the run! Now, there are people training for the 1/2 marathon as well as the full, and the distances that the KTC members mapped out varied from 2-15 miles. Again, the KTC goes out ahead of time and maps out a course and marks the trails with chalk so you know how far you've gone and where you're going the enitre time. It's awesome.

Of these 100 people that were there, I have been running with 3 guys consistently. We met at one of these runs a few weeks ago and it's been great to train with them. Our training pace is about the same, but they like to pile on the miles, which in all honesty I've needed. I tend to 'take it easy' for fear of getting hurt or tired out and therefore may have been holding a little back on the long runs.

So this past Saturday I didn't find my guys at the beginning of the run, apparently they started behind me, and when I stopped at a park bathroom they passed me. My plan for the run was 12 miles at about 8:45/mile. (This is already WAY ahead of my long run training schedule for my first marathon--Knoxville marathon is on Mar 30). So, I got caught up with some people training for the 1/2 marathon and only running 8 miles at the beginning of my long run on Saturday. They were running at about 8:00/mile, which for me was too fast for this run.

I slowed down and started running by myself :(

I don't wear a watch when I run (don't try that at home kids....runners should have a watch), so I really had no idea how fast I was running. Usually someone in the group has a garmin to lead the group. I was apparently running faster than 9 minutes a mile, because at my 6 mile mark, which was going to be my turnaround spot, I caught my running buddies at the water stop. I was totally prepared to turn around and run 12 miles, but they twisted my arm into running with them (which I wanted to do anyways), and running 15 miles. They had 1.5 more miles to go before they turned around, and they were running at about 9:10/mile, which sounded good to me.

So, I ran with them and it was a good run. I was dead tired after the run and have been hungry ever since (It's now Monday at lunchtime). I am really pumped I made it 15 miles at this point and I still have 2.75 months to train. Everyone should run with a group, it makes everything so much easier!