A Punny Running Partner

I'm a lucky girl. My regular running partner is a rockstar-scientist-chick magnet-storyteller who keeps me so entertained as we tick off our miles in downtown Richmond that sometimes I almost forget that we are running our butts off. I make fun of his old man knee (he is 31 to my 28). He regales me with tales of his latest space-related discovery and uncanny ability to come up with puns. For example, a recent chat with Prabir produced the following:

We make a good team.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Prabir.

This is an old picture, but a goodie.

So after my epic fail yesterday, Prabir very kindly agreed to run the 8 miler with me this evening.

Things started off well. I remembered my socks.

Again, we were lucky to have great weather. Clear skies, light breeze, low 50s. I had a crazy day at work, so I didn't exactly prepare very well when it came to hydration and food (but better than Prabir, who confessed that all he consumed all day was 4 cups of black coffee, a grilled cheese sandwich, and tater tots - the latter right before our run).

Still, it was an overall decent outing. We didn't keel over in exhaustion, though we did walk maybe 4 blocks total whenever Prabir's grilled cheese or old man knee acted up.

The only problem we have when running together is that we get so involved in conversation that we don't pace ourselves and the result is erratic/crazy pace changes. Tonight's jaunt was the perfect example:

During mile 1 I was saying, "Prabir, we've GOT to slow down." So we would slow down... then forget to pace ourselves. When mile 2 beeped and I checked out our lap info to see that we had picked it up to 8:55 I said, "Prabir! We HAVE TO SLOW DOWN or we're going to DIE before you get to go on your date tonight, and that would be tragic."

We walked a few blocks during miles 5, 6, and 7.

Even though this was a little bit slower than my last 8 miler (right before Christmas, about 9:15 average pace), I'm ok with it. With still more than a month until the half marathon, I'm not going to sweat the slowish pace.

Tomorrow and Friday will be rest days out of necessity - tomorrow I'm giving J a break from cooking dinner and packing up for our weekend trip to Maryland for my Dad's birthday, and Friday we'll be on the road.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a piece of cake.