It's midday, 86 degrees, so let's go for a run!

Today was predicted, correctly, to be 86 degrees and humid, but the next four days are predicted to be in the mid-90s.  So I went out from work at noon with my two running buddies (both women half my age) for my 3d of four runs this week.  They went 5.1 miles in about 46 minutes; I went 5 miles even in 45:23 (9:05); you see I caved in to the hill (Capitol Hill, The Hill) at the end and walked up the last half of it, and L and R did not.

I blamed it on my blood donation on Friday.  Whatever.

But it's five miles in the books.  We're all getting acclimated to the coming heat and humidity of the summer (which I think starts tomorrow) and as I huffed and puffed with my hands on my knees and the sweat dripping off my cap's bill waiting at street crossings, I noticed L asking if everything was okay with me and R watching closely.

I used to be faster than L (I never ran with R before), substantially faster, but now she's faster and I'm slower.  I noticed in the last half mile that L was leading and R was trailing me, watching, but that's what running buddies do.