I met up with a guy who used to work for me here in SF this week. About 3 years ago he took me running over the Golden Gate Bridge and we kept very loosely in touch since. He invited me to go out with his running club, which I did today: SFRRC has a really great ring to it - the San Francisco Road Runners club, very exotic. I'm going to have to join, if only so I can put it on an entry form back in the UK sometime. I can picture it now on the Pie and Peas run entry: name Pete Stock; age group 55-59; club San Francisco Road Runners! I've also got a friend who is in the Golden Gate Triathlon club, so I can see that on the Buxton Tri entry!
The SFRRC is a big club, and at the meet up Saturday morning at 7:45 there's a line of pace placards. 7:30 / 8:00 / 8:30 and so on. A guy holds one up, and you collect around him and then go off at that pace. They do longer distances, a bit like the wilmslow Sunday outing, so if you want to do less you have to drop off, as I did, and make your own way back to The Sports Basement. The Sports Basement is a huge shop, as big as Decathlon, where the club is based. Outside of those differences though, it's a runclub like all run clubs all over the world. Runners are runners: we all complain about our times, our training, our knees. We all compare distances run, times achieved, forthcoming races, and SFRRC, despite it's exotic name and location (Sports Basement is right by Golden Gate Bridge), is an ordinary run club with ordinary people. Sure, they'll have their share of Rob Downs's and Damian's, but they also got a version of Chris, Sharon, and the like! So I felt instantly at home, and I enjoyed the run, and the company. The only real difficulty is the translation from miles to Ks and back. You do a conversion and say "I ran this pace" and there's shock, until you realise you've miscalculated and suggested you are indeed a Damian, when your running has given the impression of a Trevor! I enjoyed it today, but it really made me miss good ol' WRC.
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