Being a lot of our blogger friends are also runner friends, and some of those runner friends are also training for a marathon or other long race, it’s common for groups of bloggers to get together and hit the streets of the HLS host city for training runs bright and early Saturday morning. Ashley from Healthy Happier Bear is here to talk running together at #HLS12!
Photo from Alicia
Happy Sunday, Gang!
I can’t believe HLS is upon us again and less than a month away! As you may or may not realize, last year I organized a group run Saturday morning for people who were interested in breaking a sweat together.
We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know people better and run with our friends from near and far. The distances ranged last year from 3 miles to 20 miles! Since we had such a great response and turnout last year, I thought it’d be great to do again this year in our new city, Boston!
Hopefully the temperatures will stay mild for our weekend in Boston. Since most people are staying at the HLS hotel, it will be easiest to meet in the lobby for the run. Don’t stress about paces as based on last year’s group there was someone from almost every pace group ranging from 12 minutes to our speedier friends who are closer 8 minute miles. In order to make it easier to find running buddies, you can click here to access a Google document where you can enter your information along with pace, Twitter handle, and email address, if you feel comfortable.
Believe it or not, our hotel happens to be in a perfect Boston running location. Elizabeth was kind enough to let me know that there is a great path right outside our hotel! All we have to do is "hug the river" and there are paved and dirt paths which loop around and make it virtually impossible to get lost. Of course, since we’ll be starting early due to the longer miles, we request that people stick together, at least in small groups, for safety sake.
I know a few of y’all need to do runs as long as 17 miles which means 2.5-3 hours of running time. Based on the fact that breakfast begins at 8am, I believe we need to meet at 5am. If there are a number of people who want to do shorter runs then based on feedback, we may send out a follow up email with 2 different meeting times. [HLB has set up suggested meeting times for those of you running fewer miles as well! Check out that Google Doc!]
Don’t forget to pack your running fuel and maybe even something to eat before hand since breakfast won’t be setup when we leave. Believe it or not, peanut butter packets and bread travel pretty easily; even on a plane.
Looking forward to meeting and seeing everyone!
Ashley
A Healthy, Happier Bear
www.healthyhappierbear.com
@healthyhappier
photos from Meghann (left, and two above in text) and Alicia (right)
In Summation
If you’re planning to join in on the running group fun Saturday morning, here’s the short list of what you need to know:
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Sign up on the Running Group Spreadsheet.
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Make sure to take note of what time your group is meeting in the hotel lobby.
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Encourage your running blends also attending #HLS12 to join you and remind them to sign up on the spreadsheet as well!
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Don’t forget to pack your running stuff! Clothes, shoes, GPS, IPod, SpiBelt, fuel and the like!
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Meet in the lobby Saturday morning at the planned time and get your run on Cambridge Style! And then, you know, blog about it.
Thanks for planning this! Great idea
Great idea!! I just signed up
Thanks for setting this up, I am missing my Team In Training long run for HLS and now I don’t have to run alone
(Although I am much slower than those in my mile group haha)
Thanks for organizing, Ashley!
I’ll be running Friday morning before HLS if anyone wants to get their long run out of the way before all the fun starts
I have 20 to do around 8:30 pace, so let me know if you would like to join 
Such a great idea!! Love this!!
I’m bummed I’m not going to HLS again this year, but last year was a blast. I think I ran 11 or so miles with the group and really appreciate Ashley that you put the run together. It was a great opportunity to meet so many others training for races and definitely much safer to be doing a long run with company (and new blog friends) in the dark rather than alone.
Have fun everyone!!
Signed up for my 3 mile group! Super stoked! Can’t wait to meet everyone
this is great!! so excited