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Dear lady on the treadmill next to me

Dear lady on the treadmill next to me

 

I was doing a long run on a treadmill last Sunday.

This is not a common occurrence for me, but my “A” race of the season is a net downhill half marathon, and this specific treadmill can decline.

The theory of race specificity dictates to train similar to the race settings, so I did a downhill two hour progression run. Yes, my quads felt it the next day.

Anyway, back to the point at hand, which was the lady on the treadmill next to me.

 

I was doing a long run on a treadmill last Sunday.

This is not a common occurrence for me, but my “A” race of the season is a net downhill half marathon, and this specific treadmill can decline.

The theory of race specificity dictates to train similar to the race settings, so I did a downhill two hour progression run. Yes, my quads felt it the next day.

Anyway, back to the point at hand, which was the lady on the treadmill next to me.

When I started my run, I glanced as discretely as possible at her treadmill’s duration. She had just started as well.

After an hour it became clear to me that both of us were in this for the long run.

The above card about racing the treadmill next to you came to my mind, but we were not racing. We were in this together! It’s easy to talk yourself out of a run while on this machine, as there’s no out and back option forcing you to run the hour back home. You can step off whenever you wish.

But instead of racing her, I ran with her. We were going different speeds, but were working together. I told myself that if she’s staying on, then damn it I’m staying on too.

She was running much slower than I was, and it occurred to me that we’d never be able to do this workout “together” on the roads. During these two hours talking to myself in my own head, my thoughts wandered to all of the slower runners at events that I attend. It’s interesting to think that as an above average athlete, I often get told that I’m inspiring, being so “fast”.

Yet, the middle and even the back of the pack runners are the ones that inspire me the most! Your 20 mile long run is much longer than my 20 mile long run. Your half marathon may take twice as long as my half marathon! My race is over and I’m eating macaroni salad at the finish while you’re still running through the last mile of the course that is half under water.

That’s why I try my best to stay at the finish line as long as I can, cheering on the last of the athletes to come through. You are the inspiring ones!

But back to to the treadmill.

She finished up the run at two hours, I still had about ten minutes left. I was going to tell her that I appreciated the run, but she beat me to it! It’s so interesting that we said not a word to each other while running, but were both thinking the same thing.

“Thanks for running with me!” she said. I smiled and agreed, it was a good workout!

 

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