After last night’s late running festivities, the ladies rose for an 8:30am run.  Not us guys.  As gentlemen runners, we met at noon.  Even I find this hard to believe, but I haven’t run with a team of guys in nearly 25 years.  It’s a kick.  This might not be true for everyone, but the group has a natural tendency to make everyone run faster than they would running solo.  We’re talking about getting together regularly on weekends, although never before 12:00.

We ran a 6 mile out and back course along the Lobo Trail – starting and ending at Steve’s house.  We all made smart gear choices.  Nobody wore gloves although it was cold starting out.  The sun was so bright that you just knew you would warm up once you got going, and we did.  The conversation started out mostly about the previous night’s Old Fashion drinks.  Turns out we can all hang with each others’ pace fairly well.  Three of us will turn 50 next year.  In fact, we’ve already booked a huge neighborhood trip to Mexico to celebrate the half dozen or so of us turning 50.  Keith has set a goal to run his first marathon next year to mark his semi-centenary.  After struggling to hang with him today, I’d say he could run a marathon now.

And clearly Kelly’s boot camp at the rec center is paying dividends.  He shot past me on the final mile, called me a pussy, and raced Keith in for the uphill finish.  I didn’t have pain in my game plan today, and I finished up easy as a cool down.  I helped to keep the pace strong through the middle of the run, after we’d all warmed up.  I could tell it was a decent pace heading back by the drop in chit chat.  I know I was breathing hard.  Overall, it was a great run.  Looking forward to more with my twelve o’clock running club.