Kevin’s Back!

I’d had enough.

It had been over a month since Kevin ran any meaningful miles (treadmills @ 6.0 mph while watching Oprah don’t count as meaningful miles).

He needed to get his lazy ass back on the road. I didn’t care how bad his ribs hurt – I missed my running partner.

I sent him an email last week: “Let’s run – you pick the time, place, distance and pace. I’ll be there.”

I didn’t hear from him for three days. I was starting to think he was ducking me. Maybe I pushed too hard? Maybe my Friday afternoon voice mail about his flabby ass and love handles hit a little too close to home?  Maybe I shouldn’t have suggested he take up checkers as his new exercise?  Maybe it was wrong telling my single friends that Colleen was looking for a new man who could keep up with her on a long run.
Finally, he called Sunday night. He was off skiing for the weekend in Vermont. He said he’d love to run. We were on for Tuesday morning – 6am – his place.

I went to bed last night wondering how I’d get in a decent workout Tuesday.  I doubted that we’d go much further than 3 miles.  We definitely wouldn’t be under 10:00 miles.  I knew that I’d need to do something else to break a sweat:

1. Should I run to Kevin’s – it’s only 4 miles?
2. Should I hit the weights before driving over?
3. Should I make Tuesday the first double of the season?

I don’t know why I was concerned.  As usual, Kevin kicked my ass and made me wheeze.  I could barely keep up with him.

My worries (hopes?) that we’d run a too-slow pace were quickly dashed when Kevin took off and I was forced to quicken my pace to stay even with him.  After 5 minutes of running, I gave up talking and concentrated on breathing.    If it wasn’t for a three-minute chat with the running babes near Willowbend we would have  covered our -mile course in 8:20 pace …  a far cry from my expected 10:00.

Fortunately, by the end of the run, Kevin appeared human.  Around 4.5 miles I could tell that his lungs were starting to feel it.

At this point, a good friend would have slowed down and coasted to the finish.  Apparently, I’m not a good friend.  I took this opportunity to push the pace down to 8:00. Yeah, it was childish, and I’d whine if someone did it to me, but @ the time I thought that he deserved a little payback for making me believe it was going to be an easy morning.

It’s good to have you back, Kevin.  See you Tuesday morning.