One of the benefits of being a plodder, is that its relatively easy to find a running partner whos faster than you.
A friend of mine, with whom I did all my long runs for my London training this time last year, lives about 20 minutes drive away. Hes doing London again this year for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) a
very worthy cause, but he is in need of a little motivation for the mid-week runs in the dark.
Hes faster than me,
and perhaps more worryingly, appears to have mastered the art of negative splits, insofar as his slower first half of a run is my normal pace, but hell pick up the pace quite noticeably in the last quarter.
Last night he came over to my manor and we ran (not plodded) 6 miles, finishing with the longish hill Ive referred to in previous dull entries.
This hill, coupled with his tendency to speed up towards the end really had me working as I chased his arse up that final hill. Although I finished some 10 seconds behind him theres no doubt that without him I would have been considerably slower!
We might do this again: he has the commitment of driving to meeting someone to run with, and I get to go that little bit faster and we had a couple of pints of Guinness afterwards. Result!! And no moaning from the old back either.
