Marathon Clinic Newbie

This May I am turning 50, yuck, and my goal is to run a full marathon in May and beat my 40th birthday marathon time.


For my 40th I joined a Running Room marathon clinic with a friend. It was great! We both "finished upright and smiling". (A famous and much used RR saying).


This year I've decided to join a Running Free store marathon clinic because first of all its free, (the Running Room is $70) and my brother in law Ed was joining. Perfect!


I went for the first time last night and noticed there is quite a difference from the Running Room people and the Running Free people.


First of all at the RR there are all different shapes and sizes of people and all different styles of running clothes and not so good for running clothes. Not so at RF. The second I walked in the door I realized these runners are hard core! Not one 'beginner looking' person in the room and nothing but top of the line running clothes and everyone had a headlight on their head. Ed had told me I should get a head light but I had never seen anyone run with a headlight before. The manager kindly gave me a small flashlight to carry and showed me the route on a huge map. Very nice but he might as well of stuck a Newbie sign on my forehead.


Everyone knew Ed. Hi Ed, hi Ed, hi Ed. I only knew Ed, but thats OK. An oppurtunity to meet new people right.

For the first night we were doing a 10K tempo run. I thought no problem, I run 10K everyweek. At the RR I was always in the middle of the pack. Not so at RF. I like to start off slow to warm up. No such luck. They took off and it was full speed, well at least full speed for me. One of the leaders ran with us slower people. I was worried that we were last but noticed there were 2 stragglers behind us. Great I thought but the leader told us they were "taking it easy" because they had run 2 marathons in the last 2 weeks. Seriously...what did I get myself into??!! Ed stayed with me, "the newbie". I told him he could run ahead but he said it was fine and wanted to take it easy too, sure Ed. Poor guy, stuck with the Newbie.

Even though we were second last I thought we were doing a pretty good pace. Thats until the leader said 'These first 5K are a warm up and then the last 5K you can give it all you've got" I whispered to Ed, I AM giving it all I've got already, I dont got anymore! This was about at kilometer number #4.

Running with other people did make the kilometers go faster. Im used to running by myself most of the time. Runners love talking about running and the races they've done but I found these RF hardcore veterans would ask me what races I'd done and before I'd finished they proceeded to list all their races. One guy listed his marathons and then said AND 2 Ironmans. I said I've done a sprint triathlon??.....yeah he didnt hear me.

Towards the end of the 10K I could see the RF store off in the distance. I decided to sprint the end to show I wasnt exhausted (I was) but unfortunately the store was a lot farther off than I thought it was. But I couldnt stop of course and look like an idiot so I pushed it until I got to the store. When we got there everyone was just finishing their stretching and eating the snacks already.
I stretched for abit and then went in the store. I could feel my face was bright red and all blothcy from sprinting at the end. What a Newbie face. I went to get some food but everyone was starting to sit down for the talk. Oh well, I didnt want any food anyway. The 2 leaders talked about nutrition and had a Q n A time. It was good but the whole time I was sweating profusely and peeling my layers off. Everyone else looked as cool as they did at the start....eating their bananas. I was starving!

I dont know if I fit in with these hardcore athletes. They all know their stats and talk about tempo runs and hill work and PRs bla bla bla and their fancy shmancy running clothes and high tech pants that are supposed to make you run 0.005 seconds faster. I just like to run because I love it. I listen to my music and take in my surroundings and dont worry about my time and my stats. Then again.... my husband has a headlight I could borrow. And if Im last I can only get better. Who am I kidding. I cant wait till next week!