As Laureen wanted to do her long run this morning and finish before it got too hot, she got up with me and ran with me for the first mile and a half or so. We stashed some water at a couple of points along the way. It was sure nice having her company starting out. It made it so much easier to get up and get going. She turned before reaching the high school and I kept heading north with the idea that I'd catch up with her somewhere along the way. Knowing that she was ahead of me and that I'd started out a lot slower than usual, I started pushing the pace right away. Giving her more than a mile of headstart meant that it was going to take a little while to catch her. It wasn't until I'd rounded the corner at Kohler's and was just about to the light on 48th that I caught her. We ran together again for a little while and then needing to get back, I pushed the pace the rest of the way home.
I was surprised after I left her to see so many other runners out. And even more surprised to see that they were all women. For a minute I thought there must be some kind of early morning race going on, but they didn't have any numbers on and were going in different directions and besides, who ever heard of race on a non-holiday Friday morning? It must have just been a weird coincidence as I hardly saw anyone else the rest of the way. Anyway, it was a nice morning and a slight break from the routine. I'm really hoping to get in 13 or so tomorrow, but we've got a couple of things going in the morning so I'll have to see how it works out.
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