Pew to Half Training, Week 1

On Saturday, I met up with some other runners from my church to train for a half marathon on Sept. 14.  Some of them have run a half before, but it will be my first.  This week was just a 3 mile run, and each week we will add a mile.  The other runners all do about a 10 minute mile, though, while I normally run a 12 minute mile.  I was really pushing to keep up with them, and later just to keep them in sight.  I did okay, but I learned a couple of lessons:

1. As mentioned before, I normally run later in the day.  We are meeting at 8am on Saturdays though, and I got up just after 7, got dressed & made coffee, and gulped down a peanut butter sandwich along with my coffee in the car on the way to meet them.  What I SHOULD have done, and what I WILL do next time, is treat it like a race day: getting up 2 hours prior to run time to eat some cereal or a granola bar with a banana, drink water, then get dressed, and drink my caffeinated coconut water in the car on the way to run.  
2. I can run faster than I think, so it's a good idea for me to run with other people occasionally - they make me push myself, and that's a good thing.

I will miss next week's 4 mile training run, since I'm already signed up for an obstacle course race at that same time, but I will be back with them the week after for 5 miles.