Thursday, May 06, 2010

Out of my depth

Phil and I went along to the Hamilton Hawks evening run after work tonight. Phil's been once before, but I missed it because I was in Rotorua for work.

For those of you who haven't who been around since 2005, this was by no means my first foray into club running, so I thought I knew what to expect. I ran with Wellington Scottish (aka best, most awesome running club in NZ) for a couple of seasons when I first started running, and tried my best to maintain my links with them when I started finding Saturday runs more difficult to fit around work and my long Sunday marathon runs.

... but it turns out that the Hawks' Thursday night run was a far cry from my Scottish mid week runs. When I turned up, I noticed a whole lotta tights, compression sleeves and compression socks, and a whole lot of dudes. There were maybe 5 women there, with an average weight of 40-something kilos, and an average body fat percentage of about 12%.

I realised pretty quickly that I wouldn't be able to stick with the group, so just took off and let myself drift back. Before too long, I met an injured ultra marathoner who was kind enough to run with me, a good few minutes behind the rest of the pack, and a hundred metres or so behind the tail end charlie. But it was a mixed blessing, as my new friend's "easy, lagging, recovery" pace was a little over 5:00/ks, even on the undulating course.

I let my ego get the better of me, and, miraculously managed to bluff it for the 7-odd ks we ran togetherjust well enough to hold a semi-comfortable conversation, without puffing too much.

We finished the loop at an average pace of about 5:15/k (AHR 173), and I jogged back for about ten minutes to find Phil, bringing my average pace and HR to more sensible levels.

So, won't be doing that again! (but I am secretly happy that I could hold a semi-respectable pace while chatting and running some wee hills....)

4 comments:

Britt said...

This is mostly why I stopped training with my tri club. There's always 9034234 uber competitive, super fit men who think it's a testosterone show and 2 or 3 crazy fit women who keep up with the men. All the average athletes (like me!) didn't show up. It's hard on your self esteem being the last person all the time!

Glad you found someone to run with - even if he killed you! It makes it a lot more bearable when you aren't all alone!

Unknown said...

Ha Kate! Like the story... darn runners :-)

Andrew is getting fit said...

Heh...you are braver than me!

Aaron said...

What's with all the tights and extras. It's running not a superhero convention.

The Kenyans get by with just some shorts and shoes (if they are lucky)

Good on you for "bluffing" your way around at a respectable pace.