First Shelley Lake Run!

This morning I joined an NCRC group run for the first time at Shelley Lake. I met some nice ladies, several of whom were talking about running on relay teams at the Myrtle Beach Marathon next weekend. (That sounds like fun to me!)

The trail around the lake has is very scenic, lots of trees, a few bridges, some geese, and lots of runners, walkers, and cyclists (and a partridge in a pear tree!). This group runs 5 minutes and walks a minute, then repeats the cycle. Today they (oops, we!) went five miles. My final time was 1:02:25, a 12:29 average pace. It was great running outside, and nice to have varied company. I was a little disappointed with the final average pace, but I have to remember it was my first time running outside in quite a while, and the trail was new to me. I did get turned around at the end of the run, and separated from the group. I stopped (but left the Garmin running) while I tried to figure out which way was back to the parking lot. It was a wierd, "Twilight Zone" feeling, seeing quite a few people and not recognizing anyone in the group. Anyway, I finally asked someone the way back (choice of two trails), and they pointed me in the right direction.

I wouldn't have run 5 miles on my own today at all, so I feel great for going the distance. At the beginning of the run, I was behind the back of the pack, but had some company in a nice lady who's going to be part of one of the relay teams next weekend. Once the group turned around, I was able to keep up with everyone, which surprised me! I'd like to be able to keep up better early on.

I enjoyed using my Garmin today, by the way!

I've got 25.52 miles under my belt for the week now, with tomorrow to go. Tomorrow is the Run for the Roses 5K, of course. Today I'll go pick up my race packet-yay!