So, I did it. I mustered up the courage to walk into a room full of runners and take a coaching class.
My assumption was that the room would be full of marathoners. And I was right. I'm pretty sure I was the only one who had not completed one.
I also assumed I would have the least amount of actual running experience. I wasn't entirely right here. There was a guy who had only been running for about a year.
However, he ran the Boston Marathon two weeks ago.
(You have to qualify for Boston, which I knew, meaning he had run at least one other marathon ... an official Boston qualifier ... before that. What I didn't know was that hitting the official qualifying time of 3 hours and 30 minutes isn't enough to guarantee you a spot anymore. You really have to do BETTER than that to earn a place. I can't even ...)
What I didn't expect was that I'd be the only person in the room to have never stepped foot on a track and who had no idea what tempo runs, repeats, ladders, 4x1600s, goal pace, marathon pace, cadence, and all those other track words meant.
I also didn't know how technical running was. I thought you strapped on a pair of tennies and hit the road, going a little farther each time. I'm such a simple creature.
I REALLY didn't know that there were people so serious about running. You know, about getting better times. People that treat a marathon like a RACE where you're trying to beat someone, not just finish. Maybe that sounds stupid. Of course I knew people train so they can improve their prior time. I just didn't fully grasp how serious some people are about it. Like they hire a coach. They make multi-year plans. They measure their heart rates every morning on the toilet. They can calculate their rate of glycogen depletion on the fly. I'm not sure why they do this, entirely, because I'm not wired that way. But I find it fascinating.
And, last but not least, I didn't expect to be in the same room as people who coach Olympic athletes. And collegiate athletes. And athletes from Spain and Tokyo and anywhere in between. Seriously, one guy came from Singapore for the class. Singapore!
So, when I say I was a bit out of my league, I'm not being self-depreciating.
I'm being honest.
With that in mind, however, I learned a LOT.
I came home with knowledge I can apply to my own running. And maybe a little I can pass on to people like me.
However, if an Olympic athlete calls, looking for a little help, I probably won't offer much advice.
Other than to pass on the names of the really smart people I met.
