Ahh the joys of proving someone else wrong…of sticking it to them…. Of forcing them to say my favorite three words “You are right” (ha-ha…you thought I was going to say “I love you” didn’t you…just kidding). Anyway… so for at least the last week all I have listened to is my 19 year old nephew go on and on and on about how he could outrun me any day. He’s talked about how fast he is and how far he runs with his friends (well at least how far it feels), and about how I’m such a slow runners he’s got to whip my butt into shape. Meanwhile he’s completely ignored the point that I’ve been trying to make…which is he is a sprinter and I on the other hand am a distance runner, therefore I care less about speed and more about endurance.
Well tonight I finally convinced him to come on a run with me and since it was only three miles it didn’t take much convincing. We got on the road an immediately he started complaining about how my pace is so much slower than his. So I told him to run ahead and I would catch up to him on the main streets (basically meaning all the places I was planning to make a turn). I watched as he sped away and pretty much kept a good block ahead of me for the first half mile. Then he started walking! At first I thought he was just trying to wait for me but no….as I started to catch up he would start running again only to stop and walk about a minute later. This went on for about another half a mile and then he stopped completely.
When I caught up I asked him what the problem was and he was all like “I’m tired….how much longer do we got?”. I couldn’t help but let out a bit of a laugh when I informed him that we had just barely passed one mile and still had two more to go. Shaking his head he told me how there was no way he could make it another two miles and that he was going to turn back and go home. I kinda wanted him to stay…having someone to run with (even if it’s more like behind) always pushes me to work harder. But alas he said no and turned around; admitting to me that I in fact had been correct in saying that distance running is more about endurance than speed.
Not that I relish in knowing he quit…cause honestly I think he could have tried to push through a bit more…but this run made me happy. Happy that is because I’ve always been a firm believer that you can’t compare yourself to others when it comes to speed. You have to go at your own pace and eventually you can accomplish everything (and maybe even more) then a faster runner can. Tonites run reminded me of that….and I like knowing I’m right.
Jess
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