This morning I ran my first 5k event as a sponsored athlete. To be 100% honest, I was looking forward to the mostly flat "fast" course through the office park and golf course. I had no illusions of personal records (5k is about 21:30 from high school...), but it probably could have been the best so far in 2014.
And then my plans changed. A friend and coworker asked me to run the 5k with her. I had convinced her she could do the run, so it only seemed fair to me. Turns out this was her first 5k that she had intended to actually run. She is in shape and works out regularly. She often sends me messages about climbing the empire state building on the stair machine. I knew she had the core fitness to pull it off. And she crushed it. I'm very proud of her. The data from the Garmin (for those who care about such things) reads 3.28 miles in 38:00. And you know what? I had an absolute blast. I had prepared myself for a fair bit of suffering. Signing up for the event was rather last minute. I haven't really been "training." Most of my miles are probably best considered junk miles. But I am comfortable enough with the distance to know I can push it. Had I been running solo, I would have pushed hard enough to hurt. There would have been a fire in my lungs, and a fire in my legs, and probably blisters, a blackened toenail, and even some blood in my socks. And I would have said I enjoyed it. But there's more to it than pushing the limit. There's helping someone try something new and spending some time with a person I don't usually get to see face to face. I didn't need to hurt myself. I didn't need to light my lungs and legs on fire. I was able to kick back and just enjoy being able to run with someone. Thanks Nancy. That was a good time.
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