Running Group of One...For Now

Last night I went running for the first time at the track. I've been aspiring to do this ever since I moved here which was 6 months ago. I've been there to photograph the half marathon back in October, to photograph the dog show last month, and then most recently to photograph my friend/boss P.(she runs the English teaching program I'm working with here) as she trains some girls to play soccer/football (the football pitch is located in the middle of the track).

For the past several years, from May righ up until the Marathon in November, Wednesday night has been running group night. It was organized by my co-worker D. at my old job. It started off as mostly people from the church he attended (Redeemer Presbyterian Church) which was always amusing to me because I'm not the most religious person out there. But everyone was really nice and friendly and didn't talk much about church so it was cool. We'd meet in Central Park at 72nd Street and D. would have a prescribed workout (sometimes running up hills, sometimes splits of 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile, sometimes just a 3-5 mile loop).

So now that I'm trying to get back into shape and get back running, I realized that Wednesday would actually be a good night for me to run. I teach English at a holistic health center until 6:30pm(I just started last week) and it's only a 7 minute run from the stadium/track. Yesterday I brought my gear to change into and left my bag at the center and off I ran. (If you read my entry about sidewalks, you'll know that it wasn't so easy to run to the stadium; last night provoked me to write that.) But I got there and found they even have a place to check bags. There's an old man there who watches people coming and going, checks bags, and turns on the lights when it starts getting dark. I think he's probably at least in his 60s and he has a real runner's body like he's been running forever. I ended up talking with him and even running about half a lap with him when he ran over to turn the lights on. He says only runs about an hour...every day! Yeah, I could tell.

I'm not the biggest fan of running around in circles on a track, but as you can see from the photo, it's a pretty environment to run in with the mountains in the background. I was surprised to find that most people there were not fast runners at all. I outlapped nearly everyone and I am definitely usually a midpack runner. This bummed me out a little bit because I'd really like to find other runners to start a running group (well, actually I'd prefer to join an existing group but not sure if one exists). I'm used to being one of the slowest and that's ok for me because it challenges me to get better. But maybe if I start my own group, it would be ok to have runners who are even slower who want to train to be faster. I don't know. I just need to try to keep running regularly and maybe I'll put up a sign to try to get a regular group together. There are hills close to the area so we could also leave the track easily and get some hill work in.

I want to say a public thanks to Jen and William for motivating me to get running again. I'm sore but psychologically I feel great!