My Unknowing Running Buddy
Save running with my peeps at Blissdom and Mom 2.0, I have never run with a buddy, even though people often talk about how awesome it is. After running with my friends at these blog conferences, I suggested to Jon that we try running together. He looked horrified. So, I still don’t have a buddy.
This hasn’t really bothered me. Ever since I started running last summer I’ve been hitting the pavement alone and I do like that I don’t have to feel self conscious about huffing and puffing or worry about coordinating schedules. Today I was looking forward to a bad ass run — heading out for my first snowy run (my fellow Shredhead buddy Bill recently Twitter bossed me into not wimping out in inclement weather).
And then I realized that I latched on to an unknowing running buddy.
At the 2.2 mile mark, I turned a corner after a long straight stretch and saw another runner well ahead of me. I was kind of psyched to see someone else out there in the crummy weather. I kept chugging along.
And then as I was going along, I started to close the gap between me and my unknowing running buddy. I realized that I was pushing my pace a bit, and my strides felt strong and I felt happy. I didn’t think I was actually going to catch up with him but I figured I would just ride his wake, as it were, because it was kind of fun to run along with a fellow bad ass crummy weather runner, even if he didn’t know we were buddies.
By the time I was about 10 paces behind him, I’m pretty sure he still didn’t know I was there. I only say this because he launched a couple of noisy snot rockets, but whatever, I was happy he was there because it was definitely making the run more interesting to me.
And then at about mile 4, I found myself wanting to surge past him. I did, we said “good morning,” and then a minute later, he peeled off onto a side street.
I finished my 4.3 miles in great spirits and at a good pace (10:33 per mile); I’m pretty sure my unknowing running buddy had something to do with it.
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I’ve done that before for sure. Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone else out there with you. Also, I didn’t know you were at Blissdom! I went this year since I just started blogging for myself and for the company I work for. Wish I could’ve said hi, always love your posts
Anyone on the road always seems to help. Snot rockets and all. Gotta love it.
One fun part of the relay is the “road kill” we get to collect. Road kill is how many people we pass along our route as a team. I’m not sure if The Relay counts these, but we will!! I only got 2 road kills last time I ran a relay, I’m slow, but it was very exhilarating.