12.07.2008

Hard core runners show up

There were fleeting promises of showing up to run this morning by many among the Sunday Orlando Runners Club crowd; after yesterday's taxing signature half marathon for Central Florida.

I rolled onto Park Avenue at 6:56. Jurgen was there. He didn't race. Seth showed up. He hosted the ORC Christmas party the night before so he kinda had to show up. Chris showed up. Brian Jaeger, "Central Florida's greatest high school distance runner" showed up for the first time. End of show ups.

We immediately ushered Brian over to Kim B., who (a) is much faster than us and (b) is our default relief valve for too-fast runners who show up to run with Jack and friends. That left me, Seth, Jurgen and Chris to be the hard core Sunday runners bunch.

We presume John was still coping with race soreness he had never experienced before, especially in light of his inaugural 1:51 premier run. We presume Jack was en route to New York or LA for his Leno appearance (where do they shoot that show?); for winning his age group (70-74) yesterday and beating the mayor, 24 years his junior by 10 minutes.

Christy - ah Christy, the erstwhile NYC Marathon legend - is on short term medical leave, we hear, and is expected back next weekend. Ed must be licking his 10-mile wall wounds. Summer, Adrian, Bob and others were not hard core enough to be out after the half to run again this morning.

Run, is a loosely applied term in this case. We were moving forward and that's about as good as we will allow. Chris turned home after the 4-mile stop, lamenting that there weren't the same amenities on the race course (cool your heals and chat stops every four miles). Seth turned in when we got to his house around mile 5. He is running somewhere in Hawaii next weekend so he gets top props for hard core status. Both did warm up miles running to Park Ave. at 7:00 a.m.

Jurgen and I turned at Seth's house too, making a bee-line back to Park Avenue. For me it would be a 7-mile jaunt at 10:15 pace. For fresh-legged Jurgen, I gave him the challenge to do a chase run from Seth's house back to the Avenue. When I turned right he turned left and had an extra block to navigate before being on my heels again. Within two miles he caught me.

My seven miles restored weekly mileage to the 20 miles or more plateau. Now that the half is over I need to plot a new training plan. But for what? The Pig isn't until May. Gasparilla is March 1. I'll have to play with it to see if I am training for the 15K, half or full.

5 comments:

JohnL said...

Sorry, couldn't roll out this a.m., was watching Sopranos re-runs till the wee hours and anticipating soreness, which actually ain't so bad. Wish I was there to see Brian J. I remember when he showed up on the WPJHS track team for the first time - everyone knew things would be different from that day on.

Unknown said...

We had a college runner show up for a run with our group a couple years back the day before the 4th of July. I was the one to show him the roads at a 6 minute pace, which was a jog for him. The next day he won our local 4 on the 4th with a sub 5 minute pace. I no longer claim to be that default runner though.

peter said...

It's gratifying to know that when I get to be your advanced age I will be capable of throwing down seven-milers on the day after a HM race. Cos now after runs, I'm always shuffling around the morning after for the first 30 minutes like an old 56 y.o. Good job. And who wants a fast runner like "...of the year" to show up to disrupt the chemistry of your group. Unless she's good looking, of course.

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Jenny said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences here on your blog.