not alone

I made a 6:30am appointment to run with a man who lives in my building. I've been reluctant to run with anyone out of self-consciousness that I might be holding someone else back or else chafing at running too slow. But he reassured me that he's just running for fitness and would be fine with a 10:00 pace. We ran 5 miles and conversed most of the time. Ankles felt stiff towards the end. Could easily have run another 5 miles as far as my lungs were concerned. Found I had run at a very easy pace of 11:00. I'll have to try to get things up to a faster speed again. But I definitely see how needing to meet someone for a run makes it harder to just skip the run. I'll try to make a regular habit of this. He was an ideal running partner. He ran the Boston Marathon before and could probably have easily outpaced me but seemed satisfied to simply get out there for a run and didn't push me past my comfort zone.