My training for the San Diego Rock N' Roll Marathon has officially started. I forked out my money down and signed the papers this morning. I am now officially a member of the Cal Coast Track Club. My guestimate is that there were at least 100 people showed up. About a third of us are "beginners" or first time marathoners.
The morning started promptly at 7 with a few words of wisdom from Coach Bill Sumner. I first had an opportunity to meet Coach Sumner about 4 years ago when my son was a Freshman at Corona del Mar High School. "Coach" as he is called, is a bit of a legend around CdM. He has been coaching Cross Country and Track at CdM for 25 years now. And - it's easy to see why. I have not run into a more positive High School program. Doing your best was always stressed, and "winning" meant that you did better than you did before. Even if only by 1 second. It wasn't where you ended up when all was said and done - just that you tried your best. Even better if you PR'd!
Once Coach finished his introduction (complete with his own brand of humor that makes him so entertaining), we broke into our group and did our one mile time trial to see where we all stood in terms of fitness and general ability. It was great to see that for the most part, we were all compatible. Ithink there were two or three runners that were *clearly* better than most of us, and maybe on or two that were lagging behind a little, but most of us finished in the 8:45 to 10 minute range. I was happy that I was able to run a 9:02, without really breathing hard. I am especially happy to see that I will have some company on long runs!
Speaking of long runs, we also got a copy of the actual training program. It's looks a little light. But I'll stick to it with a few additions here and there. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
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