Marathon Training - Day 1

In the past, I've done most of my marathon training solo.  But, since I haven't been running consistently on my own the past few months, I decided I needed a little extra push to keep me on track.  It was time to mix things up, and get out of my comfort zone.  So, I signed up for a marathon training program with a local running store, Fleet Feet in Gaithersburg.

The program will last 18 weeks with a goal race of the Marine Corp Marathon or any other fall marathon - which is perfect for my plan to run NYC on November 6th. The group meets twice a week on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings (for the long runs).  Yesterday evening was the first group run, and I was really nervous heading over to the store.  My anxiety soon dissipated when we separated into pace groups, and started out for a 4 mile easy run.  I opted to start out in a slower group, considering I haven't been running much recently.   My pace group was all women, and I was excited to learn that, like me, two of them will be running the NYC Marathon this fall!

Although the run was an "easy" four miler, it was a little challenging in the heat.  I'm used to doing a lot of my hot weather running inside on a treadmill, so dealing with the summer weather will be interesting.  

 

After the run, I picked up my welcome bag which included a gear check list, some energy gels/nutrition, and a very cool tech shirt.

Our next group run is a 6 miler on Saturday morning at 6:30 AM.  (No more sleeping in on the weekend for the next 18 weeks.)  I'll keep you posted as the training continues!