TNT Season Kick-Off Run

For our New Jersey Fall TNT teams training for the Virginia Beach Half, Chicago, Marine Corps and Nike San Fran, our first team run is this Saturday.

Joining an organized team to train together can be daunting, especially for a beginner runner. But much like joining a gym and then never going, we find that a lot of runners will join our team, and not show up to the group runs.

It's quite understandable though. The beginner you is about to show yourself in front of a bunch of strangers. How are you feeling about yourself and your current level of fitness? Are you planning to skip that first team run? Not ready for it yet? Are you planning on getting a bit fitter on your own, and then going out with the team? You may be feeling out of shape, overweight, think you’re going to be too slow for everyone else? You don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of other people. Everyone else must already be a runner and you’re not. They will all be finished and waiting for you to come in. The coach will have to run with you at the back of the pack and everyone else will be on their own. Or worse, you’ll be on my own at the back. It will be terrible.

I’m sure you’ve had gym instructors, teachers, and parents telling you all your life, not to worry. It will all be OK when you get there. Unfortunately, you are all adults, and so I cannot get away with convincing you in such a simple way. Because it is not all going to be OK. This is going to be hard. This is going to be a challenge. You are undertaking an endurance program. You have signed up to do something that less that one-tenth of one percent of people in the USA has ever done. If it was simple then everyone would be doing it. Every single person that has ever done a Half or Full Marathon has found it hard. That is part of why we are doing it. It is a personal challenge for all of us.

However, what I can tell you is, by doing this as part of a team, the challenge does become easier. We get people drop out of our teams every season. It is very rare for anyone who is active in the team runs to drop out. That is because the team helps them through, not just the individual.

Team In Training groups typically run at around 12min/mile pace. Some run faster, some slower. Some run/walk, maybe running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. We have large groups training together in Northern New Jersey, so there is a good chance of finding someone else running at a similar pace.

So... congrats again for undertaking your endurance program. Congrats on signing up to make a difference to people's lives. And I hope you are to join the team for the runs.

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Let's Go TNT.
Coach David.