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Orange Lake run
By Kevin | October 12, 2011
Yesterday, I went out for a tempo run while on vacation in Orange Lake, Florida. My sister-in-law, Suzanne, and I planned to head out together, but my alarm malfunctioned, and I ended up missing our 7:15am departure. She had a nice run by herself, and was very gracious about me standing her up.
I finally got out the door around 8am, and trotted off on my own, frustrated and chagrined at my missed run with Suz. It was already warm out, and definitely more humid than I’m used to, but I figured on a short and quick tempo run of about 5-6 miles, with a slower first-mile and last-mile, and middle ones faster than my planned race pace.
About a mile into the run, I saw another runner ahead of me merge into my path. He was making light and quick strides, a clear sign of a current or former marathoner. He stopped and turned towards me as I approached, and invited me to join him. I was happy for the company, and we trotted off together, doing intros as we ran.
Bill, visiting from Kentucky, had just arrived on Sunday too. He was out for a short run (a couple miles), and was moving at a quicker pace than I was. We both adjusted and found a happy medium around 7:00-8:00/mile pace.
As we ran, Bill shared that he was indeed a marathoner, with a 2:20 PR at the Boston Marathon, and he ran with winner and legend Bill Rodgers no less! Though it was years ago, Bill still had the look of someone who was effortlessly floating forward…a stride worth emulating. I, on the other hand, was bobbing up and down like I was trying to smash grapes into wine, all while still working on that mid-foot strike.
We had a nice run, covering just over five miles together in 39 minutes before we parted ways. I had close to a mile before, and about a half-mile after, for a total of 6.5 miles in 56 minutes…a pretty quick 10k tempo run for me. Considering my first and last miles were at a 10-min/mile pace, we were cruising those middle miles.
Thanks Bill, for the good company, and for pushing my pace too! It turned into a good quality run! Hope to see you on the paths again on Friday morning! This time, hopefully with Suzanne too!
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