Day 714--A Guy who Was Running the Same Way as Me

Last long day until the Marathon, I thought as I headed out of the house. 

At first I thought I was supposed to do and hour and a half, but then I looked at my training guide this morning, and it said that I was only supposed to do an hour today, but because I was already planning on doing an hour and half, I figured I would still do at least ten-miles.

I was running into Webster Groves, and I decided to do something different and run down Lockwood, so I turned right on Selma, which takes me by the University. I did not bring any water, so I stopped at Webster’s library to get some water. As I was running down Lockwood, I saw this guy to my right running about the same pace as me. About a mile later, he had crossed the street and was running behind me. I usually see runners when I am running, but this was the first time ever another runner was going at the same pace as me and going in the same direction for a substantial amount of time as me. I kept looking behind me for the first mile, to see if he was still there running behind me. When he got close enough I said, “how’s it going.”

            “You training for anything?” He asked.

            “Yeah, the Go St. Louis, next week,” I answered, “what are you training for?”

            “An Iron Man in October,” he said.

Then we just talked and ran for the next thirty-minutes. We exchanged books that we have read on running and are PR times. He was much faster than me (his Marathon PR was under three-hours). He said he was a high school teacher too. I realized as I was running with him, I was pushing my pace a little bit more than I would have. Before we went different directions, we exchanged names, so we could possibly run together again, and now I am not sure what his first name was and I cannot remember how to spell his last name. But if I never see him again, it is what it is. It was just nice to run with someone. Just when I had been feeling so different from everyone else, I meet someone who reminds me that I am not alone. That’s why I started this blog. I was hoping that I could join an online running community.  It has not happened yet, but I am still young.