Even though I’ve woken up before 5AM on a Saturday morning for other things, it’s seriously been awhile since I’ve woken up before 5AM for a run. With the start of the LA Leggers training season beginning today, I felt like it was the first day of school. The first day of running school that is!
Friday night, I laid out my running clothes, visor, socks, and shoes. I made sure I had my little water bottle in the fridge. And I made sure my Garmin, running pouch, and camera were put in my bag so I didn’t forget them.
After eating a slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and water, my sis and I drove out to Santa Monica to meet up with her walking buddies. Her previous Mentor is leaving this season, but showed up one last time to bid his group adieu.
After taking a few group photos, we headed in to see the featured speaking, Jeff from Runnergy. It was so packed I could barely hear him even when he used the microphone. He and a Leggers Mentor spoke about the importance of choosing the correct running shoes and what to look for. Because I was standing in an area that didn’t get a lot of speaker volume, I missed a lot of what they had to say. Nearby a lot of people were talking and catching up with people they haven’t seen in awhile so that helped drown out the speakers as well. There was a lot of excitement seeing old friends! See, just like the first day of the school. Hugs and smiles all around!
Once the speaker program was over, I headed over to to my pace group and was walking over with this fellow runner, Hoss, whom I’ve chatted with from time-to-time but I don’t converse with a whole lot because he’s in a much faster pace group. He’s what I refer to as a speedster. He mentioned how there were a lot of people and how you can always spot out the newbies. I said “yeah, because they’re all wearing cotton!” We had a nice little chuckle with that one. It’s true though. I saw many cotton shirts, cotton socks, and sweatpants. Now granted this was only 2 mile run, but when a person wears all of those items and hiking boots for the run, you can tell they’re a little on the newbie side.
Hey it’s okay. We’ve all been there. But the great thing is, they’ve joined a running and walking club to learn all they need to learn. Should we tell them about the chafing, blisters, and black toe nails now? Do we scare them right off the bat? Or should they just find out on their own? Oh, they’re gonna have fun!! This is fun!!
As I got to my pace group, I saw a familiar face! Wanda!
