West Stride Training Group

Time: 77:53
Distance: 11.49 miles
Pace: 6:46
Map

I was up early in order to drive over to one of Meagan's accounts in Atlanta. Sometime since taking her new position with Karhu North America, Meagan suggested doing a Craft baselayer wear test run at West Stride. It's a small boutique running specialty store that has done a great job merchandising and fitting into the affluent Buckhead neighborhood. The owner, Genie Beaver, is legendary Arkansas coach John McDonald's niece and there is quite a few articles around the store featuring her uncles' teams. Also, Genie is from the great state of Oklahoma where I spent some time and started this blog.

The training group was getting ready for the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving morning and, as with every race in Hotlanta, is being put on by the Atlanta Track Club. The training groups that I have been a part of are much more casual than this one. The pace group for 1:30 and 1:40 got started right at 7:30 am with a few members wearing Craft. I started slowly as I do in every run and was soon gapped. The groups were strung out and it wasn't until around 2 miles before I caught the lead group.

I was surprised at how hard everyone was running. The group leader was 2:44 marathon Laurie Knowles and everyone around her was clipping along. Some dude in Newtons was one-stepping the group during portions and a tall bald guy seemed to be hanging on running the uphills. That's something that Atlanta definitely has over Charlotte, legit hills. Our hills are rolling while theirs are steep. Laurie was quite chatty and kept the group together despite the pace being too hot for some. I was content to sit at the back of the group and observe. We looped a small park twice and I was momentarily dropped when I hopped into a port-o. I managed to catch up before the final hills and actually felt really strong on the ascent, strong enough to gap the group by a few meters. I backed off on the way down and jogged it in to the store before deciding I wanted another 10 minutes on the feet.

This run reminded me that not everyone trains properly. I'm not knocking the training group's enthusiasm or work ethic, but it wasn't necessarily what some of those runners needed. For instance, this was just a "training run" not a workout and we ran faster than race pace (1:30 half marathon goal pace) for 10 miles. However, this is what you have to do if the 10 mile run is your weekly long run and is probably 25% of the total mileage. Think about that, that would be like me going out on a "training run" and putting in ~25 miles at sub-5:25 pace. I forget that runners don't always run 6-7 days a week, take the easy days easy and run hard when it's a workout.

The post-run goodies were excellent. There was bread from Great Harvest (I thought this was just a Charlotte thing and was a little disappointed to learn GH is a chain) and I really took a liking to the cinnamon chip with whipped butter. There was also coffee, hot cocoa and pumpkin bread. The customers were also hanging around the store to try-on apparel, shoes, chat and eat. In my experience, runners have dispersed quickly so I'm not sure what it was that kept them around so long and had them so excited. Maybe it's the bigger market? Regardless, it was cool to see and be a part of.