Start time: 01/08/05, 9:00am

Location: W&OD Trail

Distance: 7 miles

Run:Walk ratio: 4:1

Average pace: 12:29min/mile

Went out running with “the group”, which means going a little slower. I don’t know why running with multiple people slows me down so much; I guess it’s the social interactions and all. Half of the people we were with hadn’t done much running lately, so we did a small distance. Pam, Randy, and I ran an extra mile afterwards but since Pam and Randy both had places to be even they had to stop relatively quickly, so I decided to get out of the moisture and go home and… take a bath. Hmmmm, something seems wrong with this story, I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

It was really nice to be back with the group, though, something I hadn’t done since before Christmas. (A good turnout too, with seven of us in all.) Everyone seems to be adjusting to the new pace pretty well, and I think before long we’ll have lopped off another half minute as a group. (I’ve been running faster 5-milers on my own, so I’m not too concerned about that.) Since I figure I’ll land in either the 12:00 or 11:30 pace group in May (you train a minute slower than you finish the “run an easy 3-miler, no huffing and puffing allowed” time trial), it’s nice to know that I’ll almost certainly have some of my buddies with me there as well. They’re good, good people.