1999 Season

august 15, 1998

today was the first day of training with the team. WOW. what support and team spirit. the team ran around the Stanford Stadium for a warm up then we stretched. After stretching we gathered to get our maps and hear about the course. There were two choices for us - a four mile run or a six mile run. We would all start together and midway on the course the route would split to accomodate the six versus four mile route. We ran through Stanford and around the neighborhoods surrounding the campus. (Nice houses)

I was very nervous about the run. I have never run more than 4 miles and 1 mile of that I always walked as a warm up and cool down. So we started and I tried not to run too fast. That is always a problem - starting too fast and then burning out.

The first couple of mile were awful. Running on pavement, running up hills and having lots of people around are conditions that are new to me. I had to walk occasionally and work out the tightness in the front of my right leg.

I started to run with a woman named Kathy - who had done San Diego last season - and we tried to do a time of eight minutes run and one minute walk. We walked up hills and ran down them. Sandy - my mentor - passed us on one of the hills while we were walking. Once I hit the third mile my leg was ok and it was just a matter of keeping my pace constant so I can build my aerobic base.

At the split we decided to do the six miles rather than the four miles. I felt pretty good and thought why not take the challenge and go for it. We continued on and after we ran around the lake on campus Kathy had to stop and walk because of her IT bands tightening up and hurting. I finished the run with Chuck and as we ran into the finish everyone cheered and clapped. It was sooo coool. I have never felt so great about a run before.

It makes a nice balance.