Saturday I ran at the Garden of the Gods as part of a team. It was good. Being part of a team makes running better.

I'm very blessed to have been selected to be part of the Pikes Peak Sports.US Triple Crown of Running Team. When Tim Bergsten was putting the details of the team concept together, a few local running coaches offered to help those of us that were selected that wanted some coaching. I accepted right away. One of my major concerns is that I have a goal but no plan to get there from where I am now.

To my good fortune, I was put in the care of Chris Bittinger. He is the energy behind the High Altitude Running Team- a Boulder Running Company team. Coach Chris has an impressive resume. More about Chris in later posts.

I was immediately struck Saturday morning by how cohesive the H.A.R.T. team seems to be. I suppose that comes from sweating and sweltering with the same group of people day in and day out for any amount of time. If you really think about it, going through the pain and overcoming the daunting nature of training is a great team builder. Nothing brings you together like a common enemy - laziness qualifies. So Saturday, I jumped in with the HART team and attacked laziness head on.

The strategy for the day was a long run, 1 hour 15 minutes, through the Garden. I was a little nervous. I have run only a few long runs this year. An hour or so is about the most I've accomplished. I didn't know how I'd hold up under the undulating hills that the Garden offers as standard fare. The group was a bunch of regular men and women. All ages, backgrounds, paces. What they had in common though was their passion to run and compete. It was fun listening to their stories.

Darrell and his son were out to lower their times and outpace the other. Good father/son bonding. Steve had lost nearly 100 pounds in the last year through intense, consistent training with HART. He's about to run his first marathon. Another member had just run the Greenland 25K. All good role models - all wanted to get the most out of their bodies.

That chemistry creates accountability. You can't hang with folks who want the best and be happy with mediocre. I probably ran too hard but I wanted to get the most out of the run and keep up with Darrell and Steve. It was fun. It showed me that I have more in myself than I realized. Thanks HART for accepting me as a new member!! You guys are already making me better.