Running with the Fasties

Sometimes I wonder why I am trying to keep up with a group of triathletes www.terriertri.com who are all so much faster than me? This morning in Central Park, our running coach, Spencer Casey, had us do hill repeats (that is, after strides and a warm-up from Bethesda Fountain to Cherry Hill). Of course I was last to arrive for the warm-up – but I always am. Truthfully, it doesn’t bother me –they are mostly half my age, and I tell myself that hey – it doesn’t matter that I’m so much slower (well, it wouldn’t if I weren’t so competitive, but in my mind, I’m still 20 and can beat everyone in sight). So, we started up the hill – after about three seconds, they were almost up the hill and I was huffing and puffing, Spencer was standing in the middle of the hill and he said, “Nice job, Margie.” Now you KNOW what it’s like when a coach says to you, nice job! So I kept going, got to the top, ran down to the bottom and started hill repeat #1. (We were to do the hill repeats for 35, 40, or 45 minutes, depending on whether we were training for Olympic, half or Ironman distance triathlons). So here I was, starting up hill #2, and EVERYONE passed me – of course – including Lucy, who is really a super-athlete and always yells out encouragement to me as she streaks by as only she can. (This is how fast Lucy is: Robert Penino, the founder of Terriertri, was also there doing the workout, and told Lucy to SLOW DOWN!!!! I still don’t know why. Hope Lucy beats his butt in the next triathlon (GO STRONG WOMEN!). In any event, now I am huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf although Baadddd is the last thing on my mind. I’m up to the 4^th hill repeat – Lucy and everyone else passed me AGAIN. But you know what? IT’S OKAY!!!! Because people like Lucy and Bob and Aerial would just say “GO MARGIE” every time they went whizzing by. So next time you smoke by a slowbie, give them a little encouragement. It sure made my run amazing!