Personal Worst

As I posted a while ago, Gary and I joined the Running Room's personal best clinic, and tonight was the first night of the ten week course. Gary wasn't able to make it because it was his last night working at the Gauntlet.

It sucked.

Not the program itself, I really can't judge it yet, but I was expecting something completely different. According to the Running Room website, the personal best clinic is "For those runners who wish to learn the specifics of training so they can improve their 5K, 8K, 10K, and/or their Half Marathon times"

There are many clinics to choose from at the running room, from walking classes to marathon and iron man training. We chose personal best because it seemed to suit us the best, being fairly new to running. The website says that you can improve 5 or 8 k (which is what I can comfortably run), and in addition there were to be weekly classes about things like nutrition, bio-mechanics and technique.

When I showed up, there were about 20 other people, all wearing spandex, and each of them had jackets reading "Honolulu Marathon" or "Vancouver Marathon". I heard some of them talking about previous marathons they had run, or marathons they were training for. But really, just from looking at these guys, I knew I was in way over my head.

We gathered around in the store, which is very small, and the group leader announced that there would be no weekly classes, since we were too advanced for them and it would be boring for us. He said we were just going to get to business. We'd start by doing a quick 5k run so that he could see where we were at, and then we'd do hill sprints for the remaining time.

When everyone exited the store, I stayed back, almost ready to cry because I had been looking forward to these classes and to learning running techniques for the past month. I talked with the guy behind the counter, trying to hold back my embarrasment with being too crappy to stay in the class. Luckily he was the manager, and he invited Gary and I to join the 10k class (already 3 weeks in progress) informally, and then formally in June when the next one starts.

Well, to make a long story less long, at first I felt stupid to have gotten in way over my head. However, since I've come home and re-read the description of the personal best clinic, I'm just kind of mad. They imply that whatever level you're at, the personal best clinic will help you to improve that time. It also clearly says that there are weekly classes. How was I supposed to know it was for "elite athletes" (to quote the store manager)?? Those running room people have been sending us emails for weeks, trying to get us excited about running. Why didn't they mention that the course was advanced or that the info on the website was a big fat lie?

Tracie - Very disapointed with the Running Room, but still going to run since we already bought running shoes