Milkshake run

I am having one of those horribly long days in the lab, it's past 10, I am sitting in front of a computer, looking as more and more little dots - cells - show up on my plots. It's not the most exciting activity. To make things worse, the reason I am still here is that I had previously messed up the experiment and it being a really important one, I had to rerun it. It looks like it might be ok now, but I cannot just watch the little dots and writing always de-stresses me anyway. Not unlike running.

I am not sure if it's because of me or people I work with just all wanna get fit suddenly, but a bunch of my friends from the floor I work on have been running on Monday nights. I was never invited though. They all assumed that I wouldn't want to go - or so they said - and that I would be so much faster anyway (total misconception that just because one is training for a marathon, one is automatically fast!) but I have been hearing all about these Monday night runs and this week, I decided to skip a night of volunteering and join them.

At 7 pm, our little team met on 1st Ave to head over to Central Park. I was pleasantly surprised to find 7 people running with me, only one of them calls herself a real runner - also training for the big race - but all are great and very determined (and I think they will one day do a half marathon:). Our little group made it to the park entrance where we stopped to stretch in a circle - oh so reminded me of fencing practices! Then we started jogging up towards the reservoir. The goal was 2 laps. Actually, not bad for a weeknight run, even for someone training for the marathon. But the real reason for wanting to run 2 laps was that they had all agreed last Monday - when they only made it around once - that if they are ever able to run 2 laps, they would reward themselves with milkshakes!! YES!!

So I started out with Jana (The super Mom and part time marathon runner), Steve (The old timer - he says the first time he ever ran around the reservoir was in 1981!) and Anna (The "I haven't run in 20 years" girl). I was already having so much fun! I felt like a coach, actually, sharing all my running experiences, training secrets (um, yeah, they didn't know any better), giving advice on foot-strikes, pace, posture. I was trying to get Jana to run slower as she has the habit of starting out really fast, claiming that she absolutely cannot slow down because that doesn't feel good and yet she is running the marathon in less than 3 weeks with her training not being fully completed yet. So I thought it would be useful for her to try running at a slower pace: at my usual pace.

Once at the reservoir, a quick drink and then we were off. Jana, Thorsten and I ran the first lap at a nice 9-10 min/mile pace - Jana was convinced it was near 11 min/mile. I told her I would run a fast lap with her for our second one. And oh shit little did I know how fast that was going to be!! We just took off, never looked back and even sprinted to the finish. I was so out of breath at the end, it took me a few seconds just to be able to talk again. I was done. Even a little worried that I had done too much, too fast. Jana went back for another lap to find the rest of our crew and escort them back. And almost all of us made it around twice so we walked to Johnny Rocket's and all ate way more calories than we had worked off. A milkshake never tasted so good before! I think from now on I will make my Monday evenings free so I can join this lively little group of budding runners.

And now just to show off my new ride - only for short runs on the dirt or treadmill and walking. Super soft, super comfortable, super bendable and super beautifully pink!