9RUN6 isn’t us. Each individual just happens to choose to be 9RUN6. 9RUN6 is something we do, but it doesn’t define us. However, what we do before, during and after 9RUN6 does.

Life is all about choices. We choose to wake up before the sun comes up. We choose to throw our running shoes on. We choose to show up and put our self out there, even if we are all at different fitness levels, and run at different paces. The commitment to being part of a group or community, the willingness to get up and be awesome, taking chances, not fearing failure is what does define us.

We could all be doing our own thing, but 9RUN6 brings people together to help motivate one another. The actions that we take and the message we share with other people is what continues to define us as individuals. When people come out to take a chance not knowing what the workout is until they show up, shows and proves these folks at 9RUN6 are not afraid of putting themselves out there and take chances. Sometimes the workouts are crazy and uncomfortable, but those things outside of our comfort zone are where amazing things happen.

This goes on into marathoning or running in general. We are categorized as runners or marathoners because of the fact that we put one foot in front of another training to be able to complete a set distance. We aren’t out to win, shit most people aren’t out to “win”, but are still winning in their own way. If everyone was out to win, then races would stop and individuals would pull out the moment that the first runner crosses the line or finishes a workout. So why even race? Well we race or workout not to be first against other people, but we race to win in our own race, the race of conquering the distance.

The ability to overcome set backs in training and non-desirable races speaks wonders about the individual. The challenge of a workout or a marathon or half marathon aren’t easy task, if they were easy they then everyone would be doing them. I know I am speaking to the choir, but as runners we often get the question are you going to win … however, many of us laugh or say no chance, but we should all be saying YES I AM GOING TO WIN. I might not come in first place overall, but I am going to WIN!

Even when we don’t have our best time in a race, we still WON! By being committed to training and getting ourselves out the door we have already taken the steps to winning. Everyday good, bad or in different it is important we enjoy the challenges of training.

So get out and WIN this weekend!

We post on social media and tell friends or strangers … FREE.FUN.FITNESS … yes FREE. However, on numerous occasions the question is brought up … “WHAT’S THE CATCH?” … There is no catch, it really is free.

We won’t sell you anything, except for how awesome it is. In a world of selling people on things and with being cautious, with the thought of if it sounds too good to be true it probably is, it is understandable to why people don’t jump into the 9RUN6 movement as quickly as they would want to.

9RUN6 is about community, it’s about coming together with a common interest in pushing one another to reach our individual goals. 9RUN6 has grown and has seen individuals grow to make fitness part of their lifestyle. We have seen average people, which we all are at 9RUN6, do some amazing things.

Trust us … give us a try and if it isn’t for you then it isn’t your thing. However, you will never know unless you give it a go.

It’s too early.

It’s too far.

I have to work.

I’m not a morning person.

It’ll be too hard.

I’ll join you guys when I get fit.

I’m not ready.

The time isn’t right.

I’ll join someday.

… The list goes on and on … but every excuse SUCKS in our books.

We just ask to commit to the first workout for yourself, but you respond with I cannot commit … how does your significant other feel about your lack of commitment? Being part of a community that helps jump start your day or holds you accountable to get your miles in on the weekend, is F@#$ING awesome! Trust us, we are a group of awesome individuals who come together to get their dose of pouring of liquid awesome on.

Come out to one workout and you will quickly realize that getting up early and taking in the scenes of Sacramento while throwing down some liquid awesome doesn’t suck, it’s your excuses that kinda suck 🙂 …

We have 400 people who “like” us on Facebook, so the challenge is to get 25% of that group to at least tryout one workout … and if all of them show up at the same workout … then you know what happens … I get the 9RUN6 tattoo …

Let’s make this happen people! You can get it done. I believe in all of you to put your excuse(s) aside and make it out to one of the workouts.

So today is Friday, which means destination Friday. A day where we use the West Steps as  a meeting point and head to another location for a workout. Today however was a little different in regards to location, because we hit up various locations around Downtown and the Mid Town area.

Last week was the Sacramento Mural Festival, where local artist showcased their skills along some buildings in Sacramento. So this morning we went out and visited some of those sights, checking out 6 of the 12 murals that decorated the city.

It was a great way to get some miles in to kick off the Labor Day weekend. Folks got some decent miles in while seeing the murals this morning. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the murals, I highly recommend taking the time to get out to the Downtown / Midtown area of Sacramento to take in these awesome pieces of work by local artist.

Join us tomorrow for a long run. The group will gather at 7AM at the Big Lots parking lot in Sacramento located at 8700 La Riviera Dr. 

When Friday comes about, we notice, or at this point expect the numbers to get lower in our attendance. We get it, folks sometimes get their rest day in or whatever. Nonetheless, the weekly group commitment is pretty F@#$ING awesome, with our Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday meet up groups.

Today was the infamous destination Friday, where we traveled off to Cathedral Square located at 11th & K, upon arrival, we found that there were plenty of people sleeping around the Cathedral, not to mention the unknown stickiness on the ground where we would have to do push ups, sit ups and other random movements that would cause us to touch the ground.

So we moved across to the south side of the light rail tracks, and did the workout at Bishop Gallegos, where there was a little more open space to do this morning’s partner workout. 

During the workout, Brad 1.0 raised the question … “When did this workout get easier?”

Folks the workouts don’t get easier, we just get stronger and can accomplish more when there is a commitment to getting after it. Fitness can’t be a sometimes thing, it has to be a routine to see gains. The workout never changed, it is the same one that we first saw before. It just shows that when you commit to something the results will happen and the joy of knowing what it took to get there makes it all worth it.

When workouts get tough, I think rather than dreading it we should all embrace the struggle at times because it is part of the journey. A journey that we set for ourselves. Not one person in 9RUN6 is a professional athlete who does this for a living, so each moment hard or easy should be ended with a smile, because at the end of the workout, we just found much more about ourselves.

Rio ended last week, you know the big event that happens every four years that happened to be in a South American country this last summer that lasted for about 2 weeks. At this point, we had hoped that BMC would be back. With last week being the track and field events, we scrolled through the race line ups but no BMC … so perhaps this wasn’t the year he was competing in the big competition.

So the next steps to make sure was to find out where BMC was, is to stroll social media of course. Luckily, BMC posted something 15 hours ago on the Facebook… see below …

Unfortunately, the post had nothing to do with fitness or attending 9RUN6 anytime soon. The next step was to check Strava. No runs, now we are beginning to think that he might have quit running or doing fitness all together.

Personally, I think he is starting his own group titled 9bRUNch6 … the focus is on dropping all fitness all together and just focus on carb loading as much as possible.

While BMC was off doing some mysterious activities, the crew got together and did their dirty work of pouring some liquid sweat this morning with some running and a solid workout … oh and did someone say it was Wednesday? Well, of course we ended out the workout with some balls to the walls sprints!

If you miss BMC like many of us do … send him a tweet and let him know we still love him …

Tweet to @RUN_BMCrilly

Runners and gadget geeks are very similar. Even if you haven’t owned a GPS watch you probably have some sort of running app on your smart phone like Nike+, Strava or Map My Run. However, at some point runners begin to really start looking at what becomes more convenient when it comes to logging miles or keeping track of real time data like pace, miles and overall time, I mean running interval workouts and searching on your phone for that lap function can become a real pain in the ass. This is where runners just opt of the simple one touch click of a button or swipe on the watches touch screen to provide them data in real time.

Most watches start off at around $100 and move their way up depending on the various functions you are looking for. For some just having something that tracks overall distance and time is good enough, for others on the other hand they want heart rate, cadence, and other fancy things that most of us don’t really know much about, but it is cool to say oh I kept my heart rate at level 1 or I climbed 1,000 feet on my run.

Often times runners start to do the upgrade game to get more from a watch with all these fancy features. Others because of the running social media sites wear more than one tracking device, logging their runs with a Garmin but still sporting their Fitbit to count their steps because of competitions within each ones platforms. Then there is the syncing of your running data from Garmin or Nike to apps like Strava, Dailymile and Map My Run.

The question of the day: What gadgets do you wear when you run? and what other running / fitness platforms do you sync them onto?

Monday morning roles around, it’s a new week which means your Strava account reads ZERO miles. So what better way than to zap that zero than with a run with your 9RUN6 homies.

Today a few folks made their way to McKinley Park and met in front of the library, with meeting times of 5:30, 6:00 and 6:25AM. The squad got in their miles and then took 13 minutes of time to do some stretching.

The weather is getting really nice out in the mornings so it is about time you start kicking off your week with us at McKinley.

Don’t forget today is the start of the Plank-A-Day Challenge. Get your plank on for 30 seconds or 3 hours, however long you want to and log it onto the challenge form. CLICK HERE TO RECORD YOUR PLANK.