10 Miles of Talking

Hello True Believers.  This weeks run was not what I was expecting at all.  I went into it with a bit of trepidation, 10 being a bit further than I felt ready for, and I didn't have any "gu" packets to help keep my energy up over the distance; 10 is my usual lower limit for that stuff.  Fortunately though, I wasn't hungover this time.  

We started off on the usual course down Beacon Street, and by about mile 2 or so I was seriously thinking of only going 8 miles.  I just felt miserable.  Low energy, cold, achy muscles and joints, bad bad bad. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the first time I've felt like quitting on a run, but it's the first time in this training course, and it's still early yet.  I did end up finding the strength or energy or whatever it was, to make the 10 miles.  The secret?  Conversation.  

I made two friends out on the course yesterday, one a young teacher from Boston running for the Boston Medical Center team, the other a guy who works in the trademark department at Harvard and is running for the Brigham & Women's Hospital.  They were two people very different from each other, and neither of them had any idea who I was, but we knew that we were out there going through the same tiring, if not painful, experience, and that it's good to not be alone for that.  Neither of them knew it, but talking to them carried me past my doubts about energy or increased distances, and for that I'm grateful.  

This is one of the great thing about being a runner in general, and in Boston specifically.  It's great to run because you have these odd experiences as you make your body move all that way, and it's great to do that in Boston because on occasion you have someone to share it with.