Through my dad, I met a professor from SUNY Brockport, Mark, who is a hard core triathlete. He works out at the Y too, and a real nice guy. He's training for the Musselman Triathlon in Geneva in July and asked if I would run with him and a bunch of guys to pace them. I must admit, I was a little nervous when the triathlete expects me to be the rabbit of the day. In fact, last night I had a hard time falling asleep, because I was worried that I wasn't going to live up to their expectations.
Perfect morning for running. 48 degrees, sunny, and not a lot of traffic in teeny Spencerport at 8AM. It was me, Mark, and two other guys also doing the triathlon. We took off from Mark's house at sub-8 minute per mile. We were clipping along at a nice pace - no cars or lights to deal with (unlike DC). I was leading the guys, which felt pretty cool. I'm not used to necessarily being the leader of the pack. Even when we took to the hills (which were frequent), I didn't slow down and just kept pushing. Mark, who was the only one who knew the route (a 10k), was shouting out directions from the back. I kept a pretty even pace. It's definitely easier to run faster when people expect you to be fast. We finished the 10k around 47 minutes and some change (c.7:33/mile). For the guys, it was all out pace, and for me, it was a medium pace run. One of the guys (who was about twice my size) was lying on the ground after, wiped from the run. I felt fine, slightly winded, and certainly proud. Not only did I lead the pack of triathlete men, but I finished strong.
I may be small, but I can run with the big guys!
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