Today was an odd running day. First of all, I overslept and missed my morning run. Then, I didn't have much gumption to get out the door from work to go run. I finally changed into my running gear around 2:00. I was heading out the door when a co-worker started bragging about how he could beat me in a 5k even though he doesn't run much. To his credit, Kyle is pretty quick for a non-runner. He's got youth on his side, he's only 25. He was also pretty good when he ran cross country in high school. So... I told him to put his money where his mouth was. I was a little tired from yesterday's 18 miler, but wanted to nip Kyle's banter in the bud immediately. Kyle and I went to the track and duked it out, sort of. I beat him by about 10 seconds. I ran 17:29 for 3 miles. I'm still impressed that the kid ran under 18 minutes while his exercise routine consists of jogging on the treadmill once a week and playing basketball. On the flip side, my 17:29 for 3 miles is a good performance indicator for me. I'm making good progress. The next test will be pacing Loren in the Vermont Marathon 2 weeks from now. We'll see how many 6:30s I can run in a row.... | 