Balls!

So recently I mentioned that I need to step it up at run club. Me mentioning things and me actually doing said things is often very fundamentally different.
Today I showed up at the clinic. Yeah. The marathoners were supposed to meet at Loutette Park. Those that were at the store at 6.30 were "Learn to Run" and "Run Faster" people. I actually watched the few people that made the same mistake as me leave the store to run to Loutette Park (over a mile away) as I thought to myself "well, shit".
A bunch of people encouraged me to come to the Run Faster group. Someone tried to explain what it was they were doing and I started to cry a little. I kept looking at my watch and at the door and thinking "hell yes I can make it to Loutette in short order and not have to suffer this impending fate".
I stayed.
We ran the 1.4 miles to get to the track where the speed work was slated. Then we did our warm up and wind sprints. Seriously. Then we did a sequence of speed work that went like this: 300m fast; 300m slow; 300m fast; 200m slow; 300m fast; 100m slow; 100m fast. And I was like "okay, that wasn't so bad". And then we did it twice more. Which was followed by a cool down which included 2 and a half minutes of plank pose where every five or ten seconds we had to move into side plank. And then we ran the 1.4 back to the store.
My only goal tonight was to not be the last person, and I wasn't. So that was good.
Everyone was so supportive and encouraging. Coming to the end of my second set one of the Run Faster leaders, Sammy,was cheering me on. He recently won the Fat Dog 100 miler in just under 28 hours. Seriously. These are the people that I run with (a couple of weekends ago I ran for a bit with Gary Robbins who recently completed the East Coast trail (220km) in just over 35 hours).
So yeah, it was a hard night but it was very positive and rewarding and I would like to return in the near future.
And now we're back to me mentioning things again.
Cough.