The Last Run

So yesterday was my last run before my 1/2 marathon on Sunday. (And today is my brother’s 21st birthday, shout out to that! )

 

I managed to roll out of bed at 4 am to get ready and make it to the 5 am group run.  Now I normally don’t make the weekday group runs because getting up at 4 versus 5 is a whole different animal and with a sweet pup curled up beside you its pretty hard to get out of bed.  Paired with a 15-20 minute drive to the group meet-up (not that far in any regards but when your 1/2 asleep you need all the time you can get to wake up) its a little rough going.

 

Thankfully our leader Tammy had a last minute change of running plans and we were told to meet up on campus (which is less than a 5 minute drive from my apartment).  

 

I managed to get up and dressed and ready to go without the boy child stirring at all.  I quickly slipped him into his kennel (he can’t be left out else he would find and eat all the food and destroy my apartment) and was off for my run.  I had really wanted to make this run too since it would be the last group run before the 1/2 and everyone else in my group was running a different 1/2 on Sat so I wanted to wish them good luck.  

 

I get there and was chatting with 1 of the only other college age runners in my group (I was unusually wide awake and chipper at this point) and all of the sudden we see some Army ROTC guys get out of their cars and walk towards the group.  We started to think, “oh my goodness what does Tammy have planned for us now”

 

(Sidebar I finally got me some long sleeved/winter running gear (no need for that in Florida really) because it had been pretty cold and the one day I wear it its warm as all get out and I was hot.  But once I set my stuff out there was no changing clothes).

 

Come to find out we were going to do a cadence run! Instead of splitting into our perspective pace groups we got in 2 single file lines and put the slower runners in the front to keep pace.  There were then 4 ROTC guys in the back and then their leader/teacher/? was centered at the side of everyone.  We started our run and then the leader would yell/call out chants that we had to repeat.  Let me tell you it was an interesting experience! Being this close to veteran’s day also made it that much more special.  One thing we said we could get used to was that everytime we came up to a cross walk or had to cross the street two of the ROTC guys from the back would sprint to the front and flank the sides stopping traffic (off course there is no traffic in Auburn at 5 AM but it was still pretty cool).  

 

For most everyone in the group it was one of the first times doing a continuous run (about 4 miles) without our usual intervals.  I even lead a chant/cheer that I made up by the end.  

 

Also right when we had just about made it back our group of rag-tagged runners of different ages and shapes passed by the Marine ROTC people as they had just started out their run.  You could see them smile and look over as we were yelling and chanting back (our lines weren’t quite lines though by this point).

 

This was definitely a good way to finish out training.  

 

My name is Holley and I just had my last run before my 1/2 marathon!