A Compliment

I had a great week getting back into the normal swing of things after my hamstring strain. After only managing 8 miles last week, getting in 49 miles for the week sure felt great. The confidence boosting Thursday run with two miles in the lower 7:00 range helped as well as Saturday's long run of 16 miles. I cruised pretty much the whole way on Saturday with my headphones and felt good when we got back to finish at Rogue.

During the run, a comment from Panther somewhat made my weekend. I think Panther recognizes me from many years ago when I first trained in Gundi's group for Austin 2005. I have never been in his group, but I think my face has been around Rogue enough for him to recognize me. We don't really know each other, though, so his comment is especially nice.

Panther came up behind me on North Loop and caught me at the Grover water stop. He said 'You've gotten a lot faster over the last few years." Umm...wow. Someone who doesn't run with me on a regular basis noticed that my pace has gotten faster and took the time to tell me. Considering I was fast enough to qualify for Boston several years ago, I took it as a really nice compliment. He is right about what he said, but coming from him definitely caught me off guard. If someone who doesn't really know me notices the work that I have put in over the last few years, I'm going to file it away as another boost to my confidence going into Portland. It was really nice of him to say and made my day.