A blind date...running style

Wednesday - The Blind Date

I was heading out to the Raleigh area and was looking for somewhere, aside from the treadmill at the hotel, to run.  After a couple Google searches, I stumbled upon a link to meetup.com. While I was not terribly sure of what meetup.com was all about, I took a chance and clicked the link.  I was happy to see that it was not a dating site (I am married) but rather a place for people to literally meet up and do something.  In this case, the Raleigh Trail Runners posted all the group runs on meetup.com, and the one I ran was on Tuesday night at Shelley Lake. 

So the hotel clock struck 5:15 and with 45 minutes before the beginning of the run, I got a bit nervous…kind of like the nerves before a first date.  Would I be too slow? Were the people going to be unfriendly? How serious are they? Those were the types of questions that ran through my head but once I met Scott (group leader) all that anxiety went away. There were a total of 11 runners, and two of us happened to be visitors.

Being 6p, it was dark and wisely I packed my headlamp (super good idea!).  The group of 11 splintered in to smaller packs and I found myself running with Frank, also new, at a pretty decent pace.  Not exactly sure where Frank was from but his accent gave me the impression that he was from the east coast.  Sitting in the second group was not bad for the first lap as i/we had no idea where we were headed.  After the first lap I managed to chase down the leaders and finish up with them…finished up with 4 miles.

Perhaps the best thing about this group was after the run where we all grabbed a bite to eat and a local brew.  This was awesome as we all shared stories and experiences.  In fact the group leader, Scott, is currently training for a 5 mile road race where the runners are forced to eat a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts…crazy.  I do not think I have had a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts in like 4 years.  No thanks to that challenge.

Thursday – Flying solo

Hit that same Shelley Lake Trail that I had run the day before.  Due to a busy workday I unfortunately had to run a bit later and by myself.  While I cannot say I was scared, at points the trail is a bit dark.  In fact at one point when scanning the woods to my left I saw two sets of eyes.  After briefly stopping, I realized it was just a pair of deer…what a wimp I am.  After originally setting out to run six miles, I called it early at 4.5 miles as I wanted to be sure to watch my Thursday night TV shows…30 Rock, Parks & Rec, and the Office. 

Friday – Back home

Flew back from Raleigh and ran about 3 miles with my crazy Bernapuppy.  While she is a medium sized pooch, she is as strong as an ox and has more energy than most.  What was nice was that I ran without my watch and therefore was not concerned with my time, distance, or pace.  Pretty enjoyable.