Monday, January 24, 2011
Running with a Partner
In December I got an e-mail from a guy who I know through another guy, who told the first guy that he and I run about the same pace -- 1 minute difference in marathons in the last year, and 17 seconds difference over 10 miles -- and have the same goal in Boston. So B__ and I have gotten together for our Sunday long runs for the past several weeks. B__ drives down to Rock Creek Park and I jog over from my house. Because I know the area I design the route, which is always some combination of hilly trails and closed roads (we have weekend road closures in Rock Creek Park). Yesterday we ran a figure 8, heading south through the park to Tilden Street, which we followed up to Connecticut and into the Van Ness neighborhood. Tilden is a good climb, and we had a second one on Davenport Street when we returned to the park, reaching the car after 52 minutes. I watered at his car and we headed out for the top of the 8. The last 15 minutes returning south along Oregon Avenue was supposed to be relaxing, but the trail was hillier than I had recalled. I would have run the 90 minutes alone, but I doubt I would have been playing king of the hill by myself, and it's that kind of thing that I hope is making us faster.
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Do you guys talk or not talk?
ReplyDeleteWe start off pretty chatty. "How'd the hill workout go last week?" and "was the jr. high basketball game worth missing the race?". Toward the end we start to clam up, both because we're out of topics and because we're out of breath. He's too savvy to fall for my trick of asking a question that calls for a long-winded answer at the bottom of a hill (though I got him with that on the first couple of runs).
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