Running with Walter

I've been asking Walter to start running with me for quite awhile now, but he's had other things to do (manage a little league team, start a new business, be MY sherpa, be a great father, take care of his ailing parents and his special needs sister...just to name a few) and didn't want to commit time to it. But do to my continued support nagging he finally consented to join the San Diego Track Club's 1/2 Mad summer training group and to train for a 1/2 marathon with me.

So, on Saturday morning, Walter and I went to the first workout. It was held at Road Runner Sports (which then opened early for us to do some before-hours shopping, which is key on a weekend when the place is otherwise, a zoo). RRS is not the most scenic place to run. Basically, it's in the middle of an industrial park, and usually, I skip this run, but since it was Walter's first training run, we went.

Me and Walter before our run...he looks thrilled, doesn't he?

Although it was a pretty non-scenic run, the run itself for me worked pretty well. It was my first "real" run post the RnR 1/2, so it took about the first 1/4 mile for me to feel my legs, but after that I felt pretty good and strong. Below is our RSS route. I did NOT run through buildings, but forgot to turn on my Garmin after the warmup, so add about 1/3 of a mile to the total (and maybe three minutes).

But here's the thing...even though this was Walter's first run in I-don't-know-how-long...and even though I have been "training" and allegedly "getting faster" he kept up with me the whole way.

I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand, I'm very proud of him for getting out there and running...and to be honest, as we were driving up there, I was even a little nervous because I REALLY want him to like running (with me) and like running with the track club (and me), and even though track club peeps are among the coolest and nicest of people, I was still nervous. It felt almost like I was setting him up on a blind date...only one that I was going to be there for...but still...it was That kind of nervous.

On the other hand, while I know that one day, Walter will run faster than I do, I figured I had a few months of really showing him how it's done...I suspect that "few months" is going to be in reality--"weeks." ((sigh))

In any event, all my worry was for naught. Walter already knew people in the club (turns out one of the main organizers and volunteers is a neighbor of ours. Shows you what a neighborly person I am...) and then he and another runner, who he didn't know, knew a whole slew of people because they'd both been involved in the local little league. So he got along just fine.

This morning we ran again around the 'hood. Again...he kept up with me the whole time. I suspect that in no time at all, I'll be trying to keep up with him