A lot has happened since my last post. The biggest thing is that I was asked to be a mentor! I received a call from Simone, our team manager, on the Wednesday before Kick-Off asking if I was still interested in being a mentor.
When I inquired about being a mentor before the season, she told me that they prefer their mentors to have been through the program as a participant first. I was cool with that and decided to be a participant. But we have SO many participants that they need more mentors to support them. So, I accepted.
Kick-Off was great and we have something in the neighborhood of 180 participants on the run/walk team (about 150 runners and 30 walkers). That’s a big difference from the cycle team, where we have around 30 members. I met some of my participants and left feeling very enthusiastic about the season.
Speaking of the cycle team, it was fun seeing some of the guys I rode with last season moving up into mentor roles for the cycle team, too. And one former cycle teamer who’d joined the triathlon team last season was back as a mentor, too. I’m sure they’re going to have a great season and be great mentors.
On Tuesday following kick-off, we had our gear clinic. It was at a running store right down the block from my office, so I walked over. We had a really good turnout. I learned a lot and am interested in some of the hydration options. As a cyclist, I’m used to drinking every 10 minutes or so to keep hydrated. But the runners I talk to seem to drink much less frequently than that. I will go shopping with my 20% discount coupon tomorrow and get the store owner’s opinions on how to stay hydrated on runs. 🙂
Last Saturday, we had our first training run. Even though it was only 10 minutes from my house, I was late because I couldn’t find parking and the staging area was a good 5 minutes from the entrance to the park. Bad Warren, no biscuit! But it went well. I learned that we will most likely be training in run/walk intervals. I know I could run 4 miles without walking, but decided that if that’s the training program, I would go along with it. I had a personal goal before the season started of running the entire 13.1 miles of the half-marathon. But now that I’m a mentor, I think I am going to be asked to run with our participants, which might scuttle those plans. We’ll see.
When we were asked to say what interval we would be running/walking, I paired up with another mentor who was a big guy like myself. He said he’d be doing three miles at 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking. I figured if it was good enough for him–and he’d run a full marathon before–it was good enough for me. We set out and I was running with a girl who was also a new distance runner. Her name is Karina and she was a soccer player, so she’s probably used to doing a lot of running, just not long distances all at once. Her mentor, Kristine, was out and I was covering for her, so it was good for me to keep Karina company during the run. Although I showed up late, I was still doing my job!
My participants who showed up chose other intervals. Kristen and Linda are training for the USMC marathon, so they set out with the 4-mile group. Kathryn is new to running, so she chose to run two miles with the 2/2 run/walk group.
After I did my three miles, we all gathered at the staging area for bagels, beverages and some words of encouragement from Coach Tim and Honoree Leah, who is also participating. (Side note: my participant Kristen is also an honoree, but she is not in the honoree program right now. I think she wants to focus on her training and not worry about the public speaking responsibilities of an honoree. I still applaud her whenever I can when we are giving props to our honorees.)
Anyway, that’s the update. Tuesday night will be our first coached track event, then on Thursday, I’ll be one of three mentors leading a “buddy training event.” This will happen every Thursday, so I picked the one closest to me: Campbell Park. In between, I have to squeeze in some cross-training, too. I’m looking forward to all of it!