Nearly a First

Well, there was NEARLY a new first tonight. As in my "Virtual Training Partner" NEARLY beat me. Let me elaborate.

I intended to go out and run tonight since, although cold, no rain or snow was in the forecast, and I much prefer running outside to trouncing around on the old treadmill whenever I can. After my decent run on Sunday, I decided that I would up my milage just a tad (from 3.25 miles to 3.5 miles) and I would set the trusty old training partner's pace at a seemingly doable 10:20/mile.

Right from the start I wasn't feeling it. After about the first .2 of a mile I checked in with the training partner and saw that he was ahead but what I thought to be 10.o feet. Not bad, right on pace. On closer inspection, however, I soon realized that I was .1 of a mile behind. Ouch. That makes things a bit tougher.

I decided that I would simply run my run and wherever I ended up, that was fine. I realize that everyone has off days/nights and maybe this was one of mine. Then I started to think about it a bit more and got a little pissed at myself. Just who the hell did this little guy think he was, trying to show me up like that?? And was I just going to sit there (ok, run there) and let him embarrass me?? Not a chance.

I realized that I had a lot of ground to make up, and I don't normally run at a pace where that would be easy to do. So I picked up the pace a little. Soon I was 500 feet behind, and the Garmin was beeping at me "Speed Up" it said. Then I was 400 feet behind. About 2 mile in I had cut the lead to about 200 feet behind. Slowly but surely I was making up the distance.

It finally came down to the last .10 of a mile: I was 85 feet behind, and I thought "This is crap. You didn't work this hard to lose by such a little bit." And like Forrest Gump "I was RUNNING...." I ran until I thought my lungs were going to burst. My breath came in gasps, and my heart hammered in my chest. I looked down to the Garmin as I crossed the "finish line." I had beat that miserable old partner by a whopping 17 feet. YES!!

And I remain undefeated! ;-)