Chasing Monique

Group training tonight was at the easternmost starting point of River Greenway. This is where I used to run with Ashley after work. It's a lovely place, with the trail meandering through the shady woods and following the Maumee River. With the hot temperatures we've been having, shade is a good thing!

Our group has seemed to dwindle down to just a handful, but I hope it's just that most of us just can't make it to group training. Tonight, it was Kevin, Linda, Bill, Monique, Terry, Margaret, me, and of course Jamey. Jamey assured us that most of us were still on board, although several have opted to run the four-mile course on September 27th.

While it's tempting to downgrade my goal, at this point I can't see me doing that. I signed up for the half-marathon and that's what I want to do. It might take me forever and a day to complete it, but that's okay. If I do any less, I will let myself down and regret it for a very long time.

Margaret and Linda couldn't stay to run, but the rest of us headed out. Monique, Jamey and I ended up running together until Jamey had to turn around at the one-mile mark and return back to the park, due to other obligations. We'd gotten a late start. Monique and I decided we would do four miles, so we kept going until we reached the two-mile mark, then turned around and headed back to Moser Park.

Shortly after the turn, I had to stop and walk a bit, so Monique stopped too, even though she didn't need the break. We eventually caught up to Terry, who was doing two miles since he'd already run earlier that day. I stopped running and walked alongside Terry for a bit while Monique continued on.

When I took up running again, I could still see Monique up ahead and decided I would try and keep running at least enough to keep her in view, if not catch up to her. Catch up to Monique? HA! She's the "natural runner" in our group.

We all made it back to the pavilion and did our stretches. We talked about staying in touch after the race is over in September and even discussed doing a team triathlon! Bill's a swimmer, Monique's the runner, and I would bike it. Sounds like fun!

But back to the task at hand...