5K Coaching - Day 1

Yesterday was my first run as a coach of a 5K beginners group. The group consists of about 110 people. 15-20 of them are either returning or beginners that can run for a complete mile. The rest are run/walkers. 

There are 6 coaches. Alice is in charge of the group and hangs out during the run, watching everyone's stuff and setting up water. Dan goes with the runners. And the 4 of us (all girls) go with the run/walkers. 

We took them on a 5 minute or so walk to get warmed up a little then onto the run. This week we did one mile with 1.5 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. Not everyone can run for the 1.5 minutes but they try their best. Myself and another coach had a bell to ring when they should switch from running to walking or walking to running. 

I was in the middle of the pack so I chatted with a few people but most people had friends/family doing it with them. There was a woman in front of me that was walking and we only had a few more seconds of running left so I called out, "Only a few more seconds" hoping that would make her run for the last bit. It didn't. I caught up to her and asked her if everything was ok. She said yes. When it was time to run again she didn't start so I said, "Come on at least for a little." She complained about her shins but started running. I told her to run to the curb, then the next curb, then the driveway. We did this for about minute and I knew she probably needed to stop so I didn't say anything more and she did. But we were about to cross a street and I did look behind to see her running to cross. 

Afterwards several people asked us about stretching so I got down on the ground and showed them the stretching I do.  It was fun and weird to be the one who they were coming to with questions. 

I'm excited to see where the next two months goes for them. I feel happy and lucky to be apart of it and hopefully I'm able to help them at least a little. The goal race is Sunday, September 27th.