This morning was my first run with the Ann Arbor Team. It was great! We did a 4-mile course at Gallup Park, which is a large beautiful park that extends along the Huron River. There were maybe 10-15 runners there, plus the two coaches, Ethan and Annamarie. Everyone was really welcoming and friendly. I ran with another marathoner named Sam, who will also be doing the Nike in October. The run felt good -- just the right length to be a good workout without killing me. After the run, we had a clinic on stretching and injury prevention. I learned that you shouldn't stretch before running (stretching a cold muscle can injure it) but that you should always stretch after a run. I also learned that for any given stretch, you should not stretch to the point where it hurts (only to where you can feel that the muscle is being, well, stretched) and that you should hold at a comfortable place for 20 seconds rather than bouncing in and out of the stretch position as many people do.

Now that I'm settled in Michigan, I need to start being really diligent about my during-the-week runs, especially since the distances for the Team runs will be increasing from here. The weekly training schedule gives us Sundays and Tuesdays off for rest, meaning we're responsible for doing some distance on our own Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (plus the Team runs on Saturdays). I'm looking forward to finding some more good locations near Andrew's place where I can do some of those runs!