Rogue Update: A Summary Of My Turtledom

So today was technically my first running day with my marathon training group. 

It pretty much confirmed my suspicions - I'm slow.  As in, back-of-the-way-back-of-the-pack, slow. 

Here's an indication of my slowness -

• Our coach is 50 year old woman and she just completed the Texas Ironman on Saturday.  She placed 2nd in her age group.  She finished the marathon portion of the race in 4:07.  That means AFTER a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike - she was able to go a per mile running pace of 9:42.  I wish I could do 9:42 per mile pace, rested for just 13 miles.  In Summary:  She can kick my ass!
• Some of the people in my training group (there are about 30) are  running marathons this weekend (for fun) and plan to be pacers for the "slow" 4:15 group.  I wish I could be this slow.
• As part of our work out today, we did a four mile easy run.  I met two other women (who are in their early 30s, like me) and we ran the four miles together.  I had to WORK to keep up with their EASY pace - 10:21 (as a reminder, this is tons slower than our coaches ironman pace).  Only three runners in our group finished after us (and I think they got lost). 
• One of the women I ran with did the Chicago marathon last year in 3:57.  I'd literally eat beans (some know how difficult this would be for me) and poop marshmellows if I could ever finish in 4:57. 

I'm trying not to be too discouraged by my slowness.  The good news is that I can really only move up and hope to one day be in the middle-of-the-back-of-the-pack.  

It's been really hot and humid the past couple of days.  Graby doesn't seem to enjoy his pool as much as he used to (in and out and in and out) so I decided to turn on the hose (just a little) and see what he'd do.

He got soaked!

Then he tried to drink it and this was the look on his face.

Then I had to take his clothes off so that he could dry off.  He got ticked off because I took away the iPhone or maybe he just doesn't like his new outfit (just orange fuzzy diaper and pirate shoes).

 

Later he decided to be happy and helped me hang up his clothes to dry.