Yesterday was my first day of run camp. I’ve been both dreading and looking forward to my first day. Run camp officially started last weekend but since I was doing the Charlevoix 1/2, yesterday was my day.
My alarm went off at 6 am and I hit snooze until 6:08 and then laid there until 6:11 am. I have some strong support for this venture and I didn’t want to disappoint them. Nevertheless, I absolutely seriously considered not going and here are my reasons:
1. What if no one likes me?! My social anxiety was in high gear. I didn’t exactly know where to go from the parking garage, I was on my own and I simply felt out of place. I know I’m a real runner, however, I was certainly intimidated. I hate feeling lost. I found my way though and people did talk to me!
2. The requirement was you had to be able to run at least 4 miles. In my mind, this meant we would start at 4 miles. Uh… no… on the docket were 7 miles and this was the low intensity schedule. I could run the 4 without walking but after that it would be a crap shoot. I was taken by surprise by this. The training plan isn’t fooling around. I talked to a few people after the run and some were saying they didn’t feel they could keep up with the aggressive requirements. At least I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
3. What if I was too slow?! I was very worried about lagging behind. My pace group is the 11:30-12 min and I figured this would be the best fit for me. It would have been had my pace leaders not kicked us off with under 11 min miles! I’m not exaggerating – mile 3 was 10:57. While I was pleased I could hit this (especially in the stifling humidity) I knew this was going to haunt me on my way back. And it did. I had to walk a few times because I was beat. Probably mostly in my head. I told one of my pace leaders that I was just too slow and she said, “well, we are hustling a bit”. I’m hoping we adjust a bit next week.
4. Marathon training has officially started. This might be one of the scariest reasons of all.
So, I will go back next weekend. 8 miles are up for grabs and I’m determined not to let it beat me. The heat and humidity aren’t going to stop anytime soon so I need to dress accordingly and accept it. There is also a track workout (insert some nervousness) on Tuesday and I’ll follow the weekly mileage requirements.
Right now, I don’t want to disappoint my “cheerleaders”. In a couple of weeks I know this will shift to not wanting to disappoint myself. Here I go!
SO PROUD OF YOU!!!
Thank you! I appreciate the support!