Totem Pole

Saturday's Run....We met behind the totem pole, mile 3 on the lakefront path...down behind the tennis courts. There were about 15 in my pace group....three other pace leaders were there, with one more being recruited and one out for a race. I felt better knowing that. I had the slowest runners, just in front of the running/walking group. That suits me just fine cuz I like to do my long runs between an 11:30-12:00 pace.

I got someone to cover the back of the pack and I ran between the front and middle, chatting with everyone and keeping an eye on the ones that I thought would be struggling. Many of them were wearing the tee shirt handed out to them--a heavy poly/cotton mix...this was not going to work. Some had pants on. Now mind you...Chicago may get cold in the winter, but come July and certainly by August, we're hitting in the 80's to 90's...no matter what they say about the beautiful lake breeze, hot is hot when you run. Especially with that gorgeous body of water, Lake Michigan, acting as a full-body reflector.

We had just 4 miles to run and I questioned many of them about their experience. Most were brand new runners...having only run 2-3 miles at most. A couple did our recent Soldier Field 10-miler and one had done a half-marathon 2 yrs ago but was totally out of shape now.

I only lost one runner to a walk during the last mile--the girl in black pants. I talked with her about her outfit for next week, told her that gatorade is a must when running and made sure she stayed around for the stretching.

I'm thinking of asking for their emails so I can keep in touch during the week and give them weekly pointers. I'm liking this!

I've narrowed down my outer leg pain to the infamous IT band which I'm voraciously stretching and icing and the inner leg pain to a weak calf muscle. I only ran twice last week, I'll see what happens this week. I did a 2-hr bike ride today, covering 30 miles, which felt great. At this point, I still plan on doing the Chicago Marathon....but time will tell.