My Second New Running Club

I'm still running on Tuesday nights with the Columbus Westside Running Club and I'm happy to be part of that community. And now I've added Thursday night runs with Short North Running Club (SNRC). This club has a different vibe. It's a little bit of a younger crowd and they meet at a different bar and run a different route each week.

Last week was my first run with the Short North Running Club. The Short North was my neighborhood before I moved to the DC area. I don't live there now, and the area has changed a LOT since I left Columbus. But I'm happy to return to my old 'hood for some runs and beers. The SNRC doesn't run exclusively in the Short North, but they stick to centrally located Columbus neighborhoods.

The run last week set out from Brew-Stirs Clintonville Tavern. It was warm, but began raining before we started. Still, we headed south on High Street with a route that would take us along the Ohio State campus, then east to Indianola Ave, back north to Tulane and with a finish back at BrewStir's. The sky opened up and started pouring shortly after we started, but that's not all - there was thunder and lightning too! Less than a mile into the 4 mile route I was questioning the sanity of running in a thunderstorm with visible lightning. But it didn't seem to stop the other runners (almost everyone was faster than me, so I could see them keep running ahead). With a "what the hell" attitude, I kept going.


The route I ran in the thunderstorm

It didn't take long for my clothes and shoes to become completely soaked. There was so much rain that there was flooding on the sidewalks. But after I accepted the fact that I was going to be wet, I just went with it. Another runner and I did decide to cut east early on Lane Ave rather than on 12th as planned. The excuse was to get out of the storm sooner. But I still got 3.5 miles done that day, and I had fun doing it! The SNRC sometimes has "beer checks" along their routes, and there was one this night at Dan's house, toward the end of the route. We stood in his yard drinking Old Milwaukee and socializing, as the rain had mostly stopped by then. After the beer check the bar was only a short run away, and soaking wet, we all hung out in the bar enjoying some beer and chatting. It was a fun group of people.

Group photo on Dan's porch at the beer check

Last night I ran with the SNRC for the second time. This time we met at Knotty Pine Brewing in Grandview. The route was set at just over 5 miles. It had snowed earlier, and at the time of the run the temperatures were in the low 30Fs. I deemed it too cold and dark for 5 miles, and I wasn't the only one to shorten my route to 3.5 miles. Knotty Pine was a great venue with their own beer, as well as several other local and regional craft beers. I'd actually been there before, so I knew what to expect. After my run I sat at the bar and chatted for a while with Brian, the founder of the club.

The planned route on the cold, dark night
And the route I actually ran

Enjoying a smoked porter at Knotty Pine

I have really enjoyed my first two runs with the Short North Running Club, in spite of less-than-perfect weather both times. I like the idea of running a different route each time to see more of the city. And I really like the part about enjoying good beer with good people after the runs. The club is planning for their St. Patrick's Day run coming up in two weeks. It sounds like there will be a little less running and a little more drinking, but that will be just about right for St. Patty's.

I'll keep running with both of my new running clubs. There are good things about each of them, and good people in both clubs. Of course, most runners are pretty good peeps, so that's really no surprise.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2019 Hong Kong Marathon Race Report

Image
I registered for the Hong Kong Marathon  on a whim. I was already going to Asia to attend my friend Christine’s wedding in Thailand and then run the Tokyo Marathon the following weekend. My friend Dave posted on Facebook about the Hong Kong Marathon, which was a week before the wedding. I entered the lottery not expecting to be selected, but I was. It was going to be a two-country-marathon adventure.  It’s the year of the pig (or boar) and we got this medallion in our race packet.  I was woefully under-prepared for the Hong Kong Marathon. My training suffered through the winter, but knowing I had a 6-hour time limit for the marathon, I wasn’t terribly worried - until I got sick. At the end of January I caught a severe cold that I’m still not fully over, three weeks later. I was weak, slept little, and worked out zero times in all of February. But the Asia trip was coming anyway, and being a realist, I gave myself permission to DNS (did not start) or DNF (did n...
Read more

2017 Hefei International Marathon Race Report

Image
Most of my regular followers will know that I was selected as part of a team of five to represent Columbus, Ohio at the marathon of our sister city Hefei, China. I blogged about the announcement here and here , and about my team's fundraiser here . On November 8, 2017, we set off to the Far East, arriving in Hefei, China late evening on November 9th. We spent five days in Hefei, after which everyone went separate directions. My travels took me to Bangkok, Thailand, and then back to China to spend time in and around Beijing. But this post is about Hefei and the marathon I ran there. Post marathon with Courtney, Bernard, me, Echo and Lily in back The Hefei International Marathon is a large event, with tens of thousands of participants across all race distances (marathon, half marathon, 5K and 10K). The marathon had the smallest race field of all events, but included some very competitive elite runners. The Lead-Up Through the sister city marathon exchange, our team o...
Read more

2018 Running Recap

Image
I haven't blogged all year. In fact, I didn't even finish my 2017 race reports. What happened? I still ran. In fact, I ran several races, and did meet some of my annual running goals. But I also focused on other areas of my life that needed attention. I dropped the ball on some things, and I missed some of my other running goals. Right now I'm not going to write new running goals, because I'm not ready. I will, however, state one broad goal, and that is this: I will post a running-related story once per month in 2019. So, here's the 2018 recap: My 2018 Goals I will lead the 11:00 pace group for CWRC. CWRC is the Columbus Westside Running Club , which I joined after moving to Columbus, and this goal was about the winter/spring training program leading up to spring races. I started this, but I didn't finish. Very early on it became clear to me that I was not in the game mentally and not prepared to lead others on a weekly basis. A January training run ...
Read more