For this week’s group training we had a race. Working with Desert Sky Adventures, we pulled together a 5K/10K event to serve as a fundraiser and a tune-up race for the team. My team members were running the 10K… it was printed on their training schedule. The turn out from the community wasn’t as strong as we’d hoped, but there were still quite a few people there. Several of our team members from the Napa season came to the race, so it was really nice to see so many of them. It was like a big reunion for me!

The worst thing about the day was the weather. For some reason we decided to start the race at 8AM. True, it was officially fall… True, it was October… but it’s not like October in Vegas is super chilly. It should have been a little more comfortable than it was but an unfortunate heat snap made the day far more uncomfortable. It was in the high 80’s and low 90’s for the morning, plus the air was more humid than any of us are used to due to the little bit of rain we got the night before.

Many of the people looked like they were wilting on the course. There were a lot of complaints about not enough water (or too warm water) on the course. And our last people trudged in around 2:08… for a 10K!

I’m not really sure of my thoughts on how the day went. There were lots of stressors. For many of the people on the team it was their first ever race. They learned that some days the race may just suck and the weather won’t cooperate. I’m not sure if it was a good lesson or if it was a cruel lesson for their first attempt. 😉

The people that did well, really shone. We have one gal on the team who is FAST! This was her first ever race and she did it in 47:38. She’s one of the few people on the team that we actually recommend a time goal for their first half marathon. Most of the team I strongly encourage that the goal is to finish, and hopefully finish feeling good. But she’s got a time goal (1:49) and I’m pretty damn sure she’ll hit it!

I didn’t run with the team, I helped with the race organization side of things. This season with Team Challenge has been hard for me because most of the time I end up walking with the participants or I end up not doing any mileage at all. It’s still really gratifying to see the team members improve, but it also makes life that much harder to schedule in my own training. (Last week I killed it with a whopping 7 miles… whoa, hold me back! Sarcasm Alert!)

Now the team gets another step back week, several of them need it. Lots of people are starting to hurt and ignoring the signs. We’ve all been there, but I just wish I could reach out and shake them, “Don’t do that! I’ve been there… I’ve pushed through when I shouldn’t have and it hurt! Take a break, you’ll really be okay!” I guess it is one of those lessons that we runners have to learn (repeatedly) through first-hand experience.

I am coaching a group of runners for the organization Team Challenge. They are fundraising for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America while training to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas half marathon in December.