Team Oz's First Coached Run

Our fall team has a name: Team Oz (with a Cause)! Yes, as in “Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.” Why? Because we have brains, heart, and courage! (Hey, it takes a lot to run a marathon and raise money to cure blood-related cancers.) Being that I’m so modest, I won’t mention that I suggested the team name…

OK, I had to set myself up to look good because I certainly had a bit of a short circuit before driving to San Ramon for our coached run on Saturday. In my brilliance, I printed out Coach Al’s email with directions while at work on Friday. When I got into the car to plug the address into my GPS Saturday morning, I looked at the printout, and…no address.

Well, plan B. I can follow directions without a GPS! I scanned the printout to get a sense of where to head. Great idea, except the directions were incomplete – there was no freeway exit! The directions started with me being in San Ramon on Albion Way, wherever the heck that was! Did someone not want me to be at the run?

I fell back on my failsafe and got out the paper map. (Well, the big fat “book” with all the roads in the county.) I found Albion, but it wasn’t in San Ramon. Huh? Not feeling certain I could trust the map, I finally ran back inside, booted up the laptop and made myself a Google map. Took an extra 10 minutes, but at least I didn’t have to frantically call a teammate for directions while en route!

After all that drama, the first run turned out great! loved everyone’s energy and enthusiasm, particularly at 8am. We ran two miles for time – not as a race, but just to get a sense of ability. Since I know my pace, I thought I’d see how fast I could “comfortably” run the two miles. I finished in 17:10; not bad! That’s two minutes per mile faster than my half-marathon pace, so definitely not sustainable, but that wasn’t my goal!

I really enjoyed meeting my new teammates. I tried to introduce myself to as many new faces as possible and to at least learn names (if only for a fleeting moment), as well as what brought everyone to TNT. I’m looking forward to our buddy runs this week to continue to get to know folks.

I posted photos online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurapayette/sets/72157606757581349. I’ll have to work on my technique, though – most of the images turned out rather far away, but I captured the run!

GO TEAM!