running with strangers

so yesterday my cute neighbor lady was outside of her house with her daughter when she said my name and motioned me over. with my coke in hand, a bad habit i seem to come back on drinking more frequently when i'm home, i walked across the street. we chatted a bit, introduced me to her daughter from LA visiting and then she mentioned that she sees me running and asked if i went daily, which i have been lately. She then said her daughter ran and as i skimmed her over i noticed her skinny toned early 40s body that looked better than mine probably when i was in tip top shape in cross country when i was 15. i knew i was in for it then and there. of course like a good neighbor i offered to have her come with me the next morning (a.k.a today) and tried to forget about the pain i'd have to suffer from her more in-shape body than mine.

so today we went she had her fancy ipod running thing that attaches to your shoe you can program how far you want to run and it tells you how far you're running along the way. (i just heard about this a few weeks ago on account that i haven't had cable for the past 10 years.) i normally go about 3 miles at home and luckily for me the altitude difference was in my favor since she's from LA but she runs 5.5 miles daily. early off the pace was o.k. but then as what normally happens i slow, especially today b/c it was a faster pace then i've been used to since being at home. here i leisurely run around the desert admire the landscape and am in my thoughts most of the time so it's been enjoyable. so let's just say she was rooting me on by the end and i was trying to kindly have her just finish at the pace i knew she wanted to but being "kind" in the running partner sense, she stayed with me. so the nice part with running with people you know you can say, i'm having a slow day go ahead, and they do and you're fine about it or you can say i need you to keep me on pace, if that's what you really want. running with new friends isn't the same they have a strange loyalty that is not needed at times. any way, shape or form, i made it home and am glad she didn't say i'll see you tomorrow.