A year ago my running buddy Leah had commanded me to run the last 6 miles of her 2015 Marine Corps Marathon ("MCM") with her, which I forgot about till she reminded me of her demand sometime earlier this fall. I had forgotten about it because she really hadn't been training for a marathon, she only started to train seriously for it about eight weeks out.
She seemed to think she could go from a 4:51 marathon PR to a 3:59 marathon merely by wishing it. But let me tell you something about Leah, she's incredible.
She's also fast, faster than me now, and steady too. I taught her to crave hills on runs, and now she regularly smokes me on any uphill we find and take.
Of course I hate being showed up by a person I have been mentoring in running, but she is a determined, no-nonsense runner and she once told me, in the middle of last year's HM when she coldly went on ahead of me mid-race to finish four minutes ahead after we had supported each other for the entire first half, "I'm in it to win it." I knew last month that she was thinking she could do a 3:59 marathon with inadequate training, and if she asked me to jump in and run with her to shepherd her home those last 6 miles at this year's MCM, well, I wasn't going to be the person who let her down and caused her to do a 4:01!
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