My cousin had responded via Facebook, to a training run I posted. He stated that he wanted to run with me before my 12 mile race this weekend. Another cousin of mine, who is also a runner, who ran Boston this year, and who is an inspiration to my running, suggested it to be a good idea. So, we scheduled for Wednesday morning at 5am. He stated he would come and run my route and we settled on 5 miles.
When we were stretching, he asked me what pace I wanted to run at, 10:30 or 11 minutes. I said let's do an 11 min/mile pace. Now, my cousin is already much faster than I am.... I mean, he's doing around 8 min to 8:30 miles!! My fastest average pace was 10:18 in a 5k race, back in April, and I was pushing HARD! So, I had to keep my effort up, simply because I didn't want him to think I wasn't working hard and holding him back from a good training run.
I normally train on my own and this is where it can be good to run with someone else from time to time. Just so that you can get that extra push, mentally and physically. Continuously training at the same pace doesn't necessarily allow you to challenge yourself the way you need to be challenged, sometimes. Not to mention, I didn't want to look like I've been loafing for all this time, so it was important that I produce a good showing and effort.
We set our Garmin Forerunner 10s (we both have the exact same watch, color and everything) and got started. We haven't seen each other in a long time, so we began the run catching up. I normally take the first mile to warm up and that's usually a 12 -12:30 pace. But, after mile 1, I checked my Garmin and we completed that mile in 11:09. I was already at the pace I thought I would build up to. I felt fine and the weather was alright. I figured I would hold on and see how long I could hold on to this pace.
Miles 2 through 5 went great! From time to time, my cousin would ask me how I felt and surprisingly I felt fine.
Now, depending on how I feel at the end of my run, I'll push my pace and finish strong. On this run, I just took off! I was hoping my cousin would try to catch up with me... Just a little challenge to get some of the competitive juices flowing. He did! I heard his footsteps behind me and I pushed more!! Surprisingly, I had another gear!! I was shocked!! After running 5 miles at an uptempo pace, I still had a strong burst at the end.
What's funny is that, I don't think my cousin appreciated being surprised like that... but that's the fun of it. He's already faster than me, so I had to get him when I could. He posted on Facebook that I should not have tried to out sprint him at the end and now he's gonna have something under his sleeve for the next time we run. We decided that we would get together and run once a week, so I'll be training harder to be ready for unexpected surprises he may try.
It was a fun run and I'm ready for my race on Saturday!! Thanks cuz!!
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