More Lunchtime Personal Records

My crazy ultra running coworker continues to treat our lunchtime training runs as races...or at least it seems that way to me. Right from the get go, he pushes me to run at a sub-7 minute pace, refusing to slow down despite my constant bitching and moaning. Though we have agreed to make Tuesdays our "short" and fast run, there is no way I can keep this up for 6.4 miles.

He gets away from me as I drop off the pace through miles two and three, which is not unusual given the slight incline during this segment of our run. That said, my 5km split of 23:15 is something I have not achieved since running cross country in high school.

I catch up with my coworker stretching at our turnaround spot a tenth of a mile further. He says the rest of our run will be "a fast recovery".

Riiiiiiiight.

We start back way too fast (my watch pace indicates that I'd run a 6 minute mile if I could maintain it), so I ease off the accelerator and let him take the lead. I am surprised to cross mile four in under 30 minutes...definitely a PR. 37:10 at mile five is another personal best...as is 44:38 at mile six. I estimate my 10km split at 45:32...nearly a minute off my previous best.

I have never seen myself as someone who could run a 10km in less than 45 minutes. If I let my coworker continue to push my pace like this, I might get there before the end of this year. Fortunately, he will be on vacation starting next week and our lunch runs will not resume until January. A New Year's Resolution perhaps?

An interesting footnote: Pre-marathon, my average pace over 69 miles of lunchtime running was 8:22/mile. Since then, we have run as many miles together, but my pace has dropped to 7:52/mile.