What was I thinking?

Today was a tempo run and the schedule wasn't going to allow for a late morning run with the kid.  Although I used to be the champion of early morning workouts, I'm hard pressed to do much before 7am and that's only when forced to by the small boss.  So in an effort to ensure the workout happened and I reached out to Jeff who's training for a marathon so therefore always needing to run.  Misery loves company, or so I thought.  This was our first running date, so I was a bit worried about oversleeping and getting there on time, but 6:30 comes and I'm on his sidewalk. Off we go, we had discussed pace, 8:30's was the goal.  It took about a quarter of a mile before I started to really doubt my decision.  I was dying, and the dude was chatting like it was nothing.  WTF!  At first I tried to mask my gasping for air and then just started to focus on survival.  I knew I was in trouble when I started to miss the jogging stroller, at least then I'd have something to collapse on when the end came.  I casually drop the whole "If I'm holding you back just take off line" in an effort to save my life.  It's a no go, I peek over and it's like he's out for a leisurely jog while I'm panting, red in the face, contorted muscles.  OK, I have to hang, this was my idea.  We turn up the final hill and I really start to wonder if this is the last hill I'll ever run up.  I focus on the yellow soles of his running shoes and keep telling myself to just stick with him.  Then the clouds part and I start to hear music...it's Kali's truck...thank god, we'll have to stop.      They have this new love thing going on so I figure this is the long good bye until after work, I'll have a moment to assess my vital signs.  No friggin luck, he barely slows, she tosses him a card out the moving car window and blazes by us.  My world starts to crash around me.  The final insult is we have to run by his street to make it more than 5.  The only reason I agreed was I knew we'd run by a nursing home and maybe a nurse or doctor would be present for life saving measures if it came to that.  During the final push all I can see is those damned yellow soles.  Tempo run done, 8:28 pace for 5.25 miles.  No life saving measures needed.  Thanks for the run, Jeff!

Miles run today:  5