Put me in coach, I'm ready to run

I've complained to other runners that my "coach" on the Saturday long runs with the Lukes Locker marathoners doesn't really coach that much at all.

Let me set the scene: There are more than 100 of us who show up every Saturday at 6 a.m. at the Luke's Locker on University in Fort Worth. We get paired into groups according to our running times. I'm in the fastest group, though I am probably one of the slowest runners in the fast group, i.e., people in my group run their long runs from 7:45 to 8:45 minute per miles.

Anyway, within our group are two or three "coaches." They've run several marathons, some under 3:30 and closer to 3:00. The ideal thing would be for the coaches to run with you, make sure you are doing okay, hydrating enough, not running too fast, etc.

Now, one of the coaches has been injured so on a run two weeks ago, he rode his bicycle next to me for most of the run and that was nice. But most of the time, these coaches, who are really really fast, run with the lead runners in my group and I end up running most of my long run alone.

Now, I don't mind running by myself, but I did shell out some decent coin to get in this program and gawd-dangit I wanna make sure I get my money's worth. I'm not saying I need somebody to hold my hand through every mile and trust me, I'm not the kind of guy that likes to talk during a run. I'd rather use any extra energy I may have by breathing.

Still, I get this certain kind of energy when there are other runners around and I'll need all the energy I can get when running for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

I brought up my concerns to the guy who runs the Fort Worth Lukes Locker marathon program and he said he'll put another coach in my group who runs close to my speed.