Partners

Reason To Run

Running partners make a big difference. It’s one of the main advantages of the Team In Training program. Partners help motivate you to get out there when you’re feeling tired, or disinterested. They challenge you to go farther. They entertain. They distract you from your discomfort and they share in your suffering. Good ones dole out discourse and humor too as the minutes and miles pass underfoot. I’ve had some really good partners over the years. The high school cross-country team. Paul in Madison. Sarah in Prescott. Pascal in Boulder. My running partner this evening was Bre, and she was a good one too. Wednesdays are easy days in my training plan so we met at REI downtown to run the quickly-accessed urban paths along the river. Runners can customize a workout of nearly any length here because pedestrian bridges span the river at several points along the route. We kept a consistently steady pace that was by no means easy, but still allowed for conversation. We started the run heading south, following the river upstream, crossed an aging steel bridge, and then returned north, on the far side. The loop passed close by our starting point, tempting us to conclude our run early, but we kept going until we reached a more modern stone and iron bridge further downstream. Crossing over again, we turned for the last stretch back to the beginning. Nearby, the oldest bar in Denver, My Brother’s Bar, stands on a street corner and feeling that we’d earned a couple beers and pub food we stopped in to cap off the run properly. If you’re looking for something to motivate you to lace up the shoes and go, I suggest you find someone to go with. Here’s to running partners…