Frozen Fish Sunday

Shot out with my normal Sunday morning group at 6AM for a 10-miler starting at Cedar Point Hill. Temps were in the upper 20's with minimal wind (not too bad really). Heading south towards Berea, the trail had a light dusting of snowfall but was clear and had good footing. We noticed from some fresh footprints that an animal or 2 had beat us to the trail. The proverbial worm had been snatched up on this morning... sort of. A quick 10 miles and I was in my car driving north on Valley Parkway to the marina where I was to meet my Team In Training group for a 7-miler at 8AM. About 16 people showed up, which was great considering the conditions. My strategy on these group runs has been to get everyone finishing within a few minutes of each other, not worrying too much about the mileage. Our fastest runners (8 min/mile) would finish their 7 miles in 56 minutes or so. Therefore, I encouraged the rest of the group to go out no more than 31-32 minutes to ensure a total time of just over an hour. I ran in the middle of the pack this time with a few of the newer team members. Everyone did fantastic and managed to knock off at least 6 miles. If I had to rank the group runs to date, I'd say this one was by far the best. Everyone is starting to get to know each other and the act of running isn't as painful anymore.