Running with a Machine

Somewhere, sometime on Friday, I agreed to run with Ryan "Mr. Abs" on Saturday morning at the dropzone. Now, I know he runs faster than myself (a whopping 5.5 minute miles), but he assured me that he will "dumb it down" for me. It was either the alcohol talking or the fact that I really just wanted to run, but I said yes to him (especially since he ran without a shirt on). Our agreed time was set for 6:30 a.m. and at 6:30 a.m., I was waking him up. He was hoping I forgot. I didn't. If I got my unhappy butt out of bed at 6:25 a.m., then by God, we are going to run.

I did my stretching, while waiting for him to get ready (he doesn't stretch or need to stretch). We did a very quick warmup walk, which I hated, but whatever. I was committed now to this run. I looked at my new Nike running watch (thanks Jodi) and the time read 6:57. As we started to run, immediately, I was having trouble breathing. I thought maybe it was the alcohol, the humidity, anything that I can think of to use as an excuse. I just couldn't get in a rhythm at all.

Earlier, I had posted that I thought Jodi wasn't human until we did that lunchtime death run a couple of weeks ago. I was wrong. Ryan is not human. He didn't breath. He didn't even seem like he was running. He's a machine and truly is a runner perfect for marathons. For every step he took, I took like 3 steps. And to make matter's worse, my hard and erratic breathing was VERY noticeable in the silent morning. It made me feel like my first time running with Jodi. Eventually, I was slowing down and told him that it was time to ease up alittle bit. That's when I realized what my excuse was...this was a much faster pace than I had ever done. We only did a mile (maybe a mile and a half) and that was the plan from the night before (not because I was dying).

At the turnaround point, I took off my shirt. I was soaked in sweat and the shirt just made it worse. However, I forgot that I was wearing my short shorts that I usually sleep in (kept falling). As I'm running (behind Ryan full-time by now), I notice that he's just looking around and really enjoying himself (showoff and for that, I posted the ab picture that he hates). He doesn't even seem phased by the fact that we are running, while I'm heaving my way to the finish line.

We got back to our run start point and we walked the rest of the way back to the building. The time on my clock...7:04 a.m. That means I just ran a 7 minute mile. Normally, I do 10-11 minutes. No wonder I couldn't breathe. Ryan told me that I need to work on my stride and making it longer. Once I get that, my breathing will be easier. Also, he told me that I need to run alone sometimes to get my pace. Otherwise, I'm just going to run whatever pace the other person is running.

By the way, when I told Jodi about our 7 minute run, that little evil fairy's eyes lit up. I told her, "UH UH. NO WAY. That was it for me on going that fast." Now, she's threatening me with 8 miles. We just did 6 last week.

On a side note, I did 9 training jumps with the Outlaws on both Saturday and Sunday. My body is sore. I also like to point out that I'm not going to run on the mornings of training days. My body was already feeling the run I did on the first jump and it was not fun.