My First Ever Group Run!!!

This is a pic from my group run this morning. As you can see, it was pretty early.

Workouts for the Week so far:

Monday: 1285 yd Swim
Tuesday: 3.09 miles Hill Workout ( group run)

So... Great News! Today I finally went to OZ and gained some courage! That's right folks, I went on my first group run!
Yep, me and my husband woke up early and went to a group run in our neighborhood. I was really, really nervous. Unlike my husband, who is a pretty decent runner, I am the poky little puppy.

I was concerned that I was going to be left in the dark dust. But when we got there, after Erin gave us the directions for our workout, I was starting to feel better.

Sure, it was a hill workout, but everyone was so nice and encouraging. One of the runners had set up 2 water stops, one at the meet-up and one by the hills.

For the workout, we had the option of short or long warm-up. I choose the short warm-up and was the only one who took it. It was about a half a mile vs. the longer warm-up of 1+ mile.

I was a little nervous, as I'm not really use to running in the dark and especially if I am running in the dark, it is usually at a race with a lot of people around me, not by myself.

But it was fine. It's very quiet that early out and the air is kinda still.There's not much traffic to deal with, which is nice and I got there before everyone else did since I took the shorter route and was able to calm my nervousness.

Erin was giving us route directions for the hills. Basically we did 2 hills, for ten minutes or so each with a .10 jog in between the two. My total mileage reflects the .5 mile warm-up to the first hill, hill repeats #1, .10 mile jog to the 2nd hill, hill repeats #2 and .70 mile cool-down back.

I ran the ups and walked the downs. This is VERY different from my norm, as I usually walk the ups and run the downs. It was really cool to do something different and every minute I stopped feeling so self-conscious about being slow, and just started to enjoy my workout.

I was very surprised by how nice and encouraging all the runners were. I never felt like they were judging my turtle tendencies. I think having an opportunity to work different muscles (FOR FREE) around people who know more then me is awesome. I also am grateful for getting in a workout so early, as I was able to go further then I normally do during the week.

I'm pretty surprised not only that I went out of my comfort zone, but that I woke up in enough time to make it to the workout. I hope I do another one again. I think I could really improve as a runner if I try to at least attend some of the workouts.