When I started my endurance training program, a little over a year ago now, the group was very different from how it appears now. At that time the group was organized as a Jeff Galloway Group, and our leader Jenny, had everyone winding down for a season and gearing up for the next season. In each season, roughly six months, groups would start anew welcoming in new runners and everyone who wished to follow the program would start with a 2.62 mile run (1/10 of a marathon distance) and gradually build up to 26.2 miles (with maintenance runs of distances of 6 miles or less included), with one half marathon and one full marathon outlined to be run as a group by season’s end.
About six months ago our group moved to a less formal structure by which we didn’t have a formal leader and the group wasn’t actively training together to run specific races together. As someone motivated by mementos of my accomplishments, such as race T shirts, medals, etc., as well as the fun end of season banquets with food, raffle prizes, and medals. The sayings on the GSJ (Galloway San Jose) cake were even in-joke compliments we would trade on long runs.
I wondered if I would keep going to the group with the formal structure, and some of the planned fun moments going away. For now I will be keeping with the group, though I do hope to also join a more challenging running group in the future to help work on speed work, it would be great to run a marathon in about 5 hours sometime in 2010. The group is now evolving into The Athletic Performance Group, named after the running store where we meet every Saturday morning in Willow Glen.
I was recently given a race duck, in part to remind me that its not just the fleeing moment of getting a medal, shirt, etc., it’s also the entire journey of every training moment that makes up the total training experience. By definition ordinary moments can be over in the blink of an eye, so it pays to be ready to experience them, and if you can to save them as photos as well. Each photo today, with the exception of my duck below, was captured with my iPhone.
Saturday’s run through Coyote Creek Trail was made up of many great moments. As our group has often picked Campbell Park as our maintenance run, any chance we get to go somewhere else feels sort of like a field trip from grade school. The trail was pretty as described, and we even saw some turkeys at the beginning, a runner joked they were doing their own turkey trot. Later runners said they had seen a bobcat and a coyote, however, these were the only animals the group I was with doing a 2:1 run-walk saw.
Every so often I would stop and take another photo of the animals, the colors and even Laura at the half way mark. In spite of having to get up extra early to get there, and the fog making it difficult to see the road signs on the way there, everyone agreed it was an amazing run. There wasn’t a shirt, or medal at the end (though we did enjoy a pre-holiday party afterwards at Bernadette and Alan’s house). Still, I think it’s very likely we will return there to have more such moments as these in my best of the Coyote Creek Trail run moment collage, in the future.
Not So Still Life Photography Blog 