Achilles Fairfax Chapter Officially Launched

This past fall/winter, several of us attempted to get a new chapter of Achilles International up and running out in Loudoun County. Unfortunately, likely in large part because of the location, we never got traction with a sufficient number of athletes. So that one disbanded. Over the last many months, several people who were involved in that chapter as well as the DC chapter have been doing a fair bit of outreach in various venues to try to build up interest to start a chapter in Fairfax County. 

There are many athletes and guides who are part of the WhatsApp group -- seems like a lot more than were in Loudoun's -- so we scheduled our inaugural workout for this morning. The meeting point -- the Wiehle-Reston Metro stop -- is much more easily accessible than the prior Loudoun one. People can take Metro, those of us who are relatively local can drive and park for free in the Metro's parking garage (since they don't charge on weekends). And, depending on the planned workout and other factors (such as timing), it's not necessarily unreasonable to run there, as it is two blocks away from the W&OD Trail -- which is where the workouts will be run, anyway. For me, it's about 5 miles away on the trail -- certainly a doable out-and-back, but something I didn't do this morning because I didn't know what the workout would be. 

Turns out it was the right call. A few people needed to cancel, so we only had one athlete, Monica. She had four guides the entire time, and a fifth for a brief time early on. The workout? 70 minutes at 11:15/mile pace. Not bad -- a 10k. But I don't usually do anywhere near 16 miles on Saturdays, since my long run is on Sundays, so the extra out-and-back would have been more than desired.

When running with Achilles, athletes are only tethered to a single person. Additional guides, when available, wind up taking on different support roles. Fred wound up carrying Monica's cane. And, in part because of the conversation we had beforehand, once I heard what the desired pace was, I immediately took up the mantle of pacer.

11:15 is definitely a fair bit slower than I'm used to pacing, so dialing it in was definitely tricky. And based on how many times Monica was slowly trying to pass me and pull away, I'd say it's slower than she might have wanted to go. Each time she did, though, I flagged it to her and she scaled back.

All the numbers worked out perfectly for this workout. Given where we got onto the trail and running westbound, we had our midway turnaround point (above) when we got to the major intersection in Herndon at Elden St. We didn't need to cross over to hit the 35-minute mark. Turns out it's 5k from our starting point to this intersection. The return was just as smooth. In the end, our overall pace for the 10k that we ran was pretty spot-on at 11:18/mile.

For now, the chapter will be holding biweekly workouts, as we build membership and involvement. Hopefully there will be several more athletes joining in starting in two weeks. A mixture of desired workouts and paces would be great to have. Alas, for me, I will not be available for the next two workouts because of other out-of-town commitments, so my next jaunt with Achilles won't be until late September. While the next couple of workouts will likely start an hour earlier than we did today (it was already about 80F by the time we started after 8:30am -- way too hot), by late September, it may start turning more reasonable temperature-wise at 8:30. Time will tell.

For more information on Achilles International, go to their website. After you join up there, you can join your local chapter and sign up for workouts on the Rosterfy portal.