Voluntold

The weather: -10 with wind chill
The clothes: 2x long johns on top + warm windbreaker, 2 buffs (for head and neck/face respectively), gloves; 2 layers on the bottom
The distance: 10.5k "long slow distance"

The distance was long for me, but the pace was NOT slow! I don't know why, but somehow my group kept a pace around the 6min mark. People kept talking of slowing down, but those that did fell off the pace and ran behind by themselves. Where's the fun in that? Besides, I was feeling great at that pace...until I hit about 7k. THEN I wished I were going slower! But unfortunately the slower group was well behind us, and I was more than a little reluctant to go back and try to find them.

At almost 9k half of those in the front group (3 out of 7) decided they wanted to detour to get a bit more distance. The other four of us said a collective, "NOPE!" and ran straight back to the store instead. All in all, a most satisfying run.

I'm going to be stretching myself in the New Year, as I have set two very lofty running goals for 2018.

Goal 1: Run my first marathon! I'm talking it up so much I think I'm actually going to do it! My husband is even kindly helping me by agreeing to us planning our vacation around marathon training.

Goal 2: Lead the half marathon Running Room group in January. To be fair, this goal was more created for me than by me. Back in September I was "voluntold" to lead the half/full marathon combined group. I waffled and whined and sat back and thought about it. I thought about it a lot. And after all that sitting and thinking I came up with a definitive maybe. As in, maybe I wanted to do this...maybe I didn't. It is certainly a stretch for me and the last time I tried to assist with leading a group in the Running Room (as a pace leader...not even a leader leader), it strongly back-fired on me.
Finally, I came back this week with a counter-offer: If they found me a "co-leader" for the group, I would agree to be one of the leaders. It proved disappointingly easy for one of the runners to volunteer this morning. So I guess that means I'm committed. And for a group that starts in January, too! January...the month of -30C!!! Good thing I'm spending February in the warm tropics of SE Asia. Heh heh heh.