My Saturday Run with The Mt. Gleason Runners

A few weeks ago I ran the SRLA 18 mile Friendship run and I met Coach Craig Moss and his kids, the Mt. Gleason Runners. I was impressed with Coach Moss and his group of kids that when the offer was made to  run with his group, I jumped at the chance. Saturday morning I met them at their starting point (McDonalds, doesn't get much better...does it?) and after some quick announcements from Coach Moss, he introduce me to the kids and the last thing he said was "Don't laugh at him, when you run past him." We headed out on the scheduled 11 mile run, which was a 5.5 mile out and back. During the first 5.5 miles, I would say hello to the kids as I was passing them and then I got in with a group of girls that was running at my pace and we stayed together until the water stop, when they stopped for water and I kept on going. I got to the turn around and there were a few kids stretching and walking, I just made the turn and headed back. I was feeling pretty good and decided to try and keep my pace all the way back. As I was heading back and came across students running the opposite direction, I would give them a thumbs up and say "Good Job" or "Way to go, keep it up" and I got a lot of smiles from that. I even heard a few kids say "Good job Bob" which really impressed me that they were actually listening to Coach Moss when he introduced me.

As I was heading back, I noticed my pace was slowing a bit because of some uphill sections of the run. Little did I realize, on the way out was all downhill....now I have an uphill run all the way back.

 As I was running back I would come up on some kids walking and would engage them in conversation. I asked them if this was going to be their first marathon, and when they said yes, I said "me too" and that put a smile on many of their faces. I noticed something funny, as I came up to kids that were walking, they would look over their shoulder and see me running, they would start running as to not get passed by the old guy. About 2 miles out, I came across this boy who was walking and as I passed him, I told him there was less than 2 miles to go. He started running and caught up with me. He asked me a few questions, so I took my ipod out and we started chatting. He told me his name was Arine (not sure of the spelling) and that this was going to be his first marathon. I asked him how he expected to do and he said he wants to finish in 6 hours or less. We started getting a light drizzle and the conversation turned to running in the rain and that he felt it was not good to run in the rain. I told him that there was a good chance (hopefully not) that we could see some rain on race day. He said, that's the marathon, that's different. I said to him, you need to know what it feels like to run in the rain, clothes, shoes, socks all wet and how your body reacts to it. He shook his head in agreement. As we came up to a small intersection, where a car was getting ready to turn right, I gave him a lesson in safety. He was getting ready to go in front of the car and I stopped him and said, "If you can't make eye contact with the driver, don't step out in front of the car, go behind the car". Sure enough, the driver never looked to her right before she pulled out. As we came to a stop light, he noticed my Garmin 305 and asked what it was. I explained that it was a GPS and that it would tell me my real time pace, distance, elevation and heart rate. He seemed impressed and then asked what pace we were running. As we started to run, I would call out our pace. We finished up with a short spring to the finish. I got my recovery meal (Egg McMuffin, hash browns and a large iced coffee) and headed home. Total run 11.21 miles in 1:51:28.

When asked if I would be back again...I said yes! I had a great time running with these kids. I normally train by myself except for Thursday night fun runs with our group, so this was a welcome change. Thanks again to Coach Moss and the kids for welcoming me! See kids...old guys can run too!  :)  See you next Saturday.

Sunday was an easy 6 mile run at marathon pace...finished and then went for a massage. Time to relax now.