First time Pacer

Tonight was our "first" run-club run of the session, and my official first as a pacer/group leader. Eeek! I so want to do a good job!! I printed off the training schedule (granted, for my race of October 17th) and calculated all the paces for 5:00, 5:15, 5:30 and 5:45/finish. I made copies for everyone...and proceeded to leave them in my car! D-oh!
Garrath sent me and my flock out, and when I asked him our pace, he said 7:07. I heard the collective "gulp" from the group. Most are returnees, with one new girl, and new to running period. It was a Tempo run night, with the goal of running 10km. We warm up the first 3, run tempo pace (7:07) for the next 4 and then cool down the last 3. Easy enough...except the 7:07 pace is for a 5 hour finish, and I had members struggling right from the get-go. And debates as to what exactly the warm-up pace should be. My old pacer ran with us, and added her wisdom to the debate. She decided we were going too fast, but again, she's used to us running at 5:45. I've sped up over the last 6 months! If I stuck to last night's trial run pace, I would finish a marathon in 5:08 (I love all the little gadgets within the Running Room online training site!). I need to clarify with Garrath how to handle the different paces, and how to settle on one pace that will meet every one's needs, including my own. After all, my goal for Toronto is sub-5.
Started the run with 5 of us, and finished with 3. After some stretching, and talks about chiros and physios and injuries, I went out looking for the other two. Leave no one behind...that is our credo. Finally figured out that they must have cut back early, as their bags were gone from the clinic, and I went looking for them in the bar.
Sadly, it appears I broke someone the first night! K. (my former pacer) was having serious back spasms, and she figured it's because she ran too fast too soon (also hasn't really run since the marathon May 31st). And C. came back with her, as she didn't want to push herself too much. We're meeting up for our steady run tomorrow (C. only), and she specifically told me to push her a little harder. 'kay! Our deets tonight, in the meantime, worked out to a 7:55 overall pace, with our tempo portion working out to a 7:22. Not bad for the first night out.
Had a couple of Irish Meal Replacement pints (aka Guinness) and am now home and am very mellow! In my jammies and ready for bed. Tomorrow is the first attempt at switching my weigh-ins to Thursdays, so we'll see how running club (running, then drinking!) affects things. I try not to radically change too much, as our leader says "are you willing to give that up for the rest of your live?"...am I willing to give up a pint (or two) on a Wednesday forever??? Nope!
Nothing too exciting with food...egg and hash browns for brekkie, a nice chicken salad at lunch and a turkey/avocado wrap (kind of a variation of my salad last night) for dinner before the run. Oh, and there was that Nanaimo square this afternoon...I was hungry, I held off as long as I could, and I then I caved. And I thoroughly enjoyed every last decadent morsel!!
:)
Later,