Since I started losing weight in January of this year, I have been very public about it. I tell everyone about my weight loss, and one of the places I receive the most support is at work. Many of my coworkers, both soldiers and civilians, have been rooting for me since the beginning.
One coworker in particular has been one of the most encouraging people so far, in a painful and exhausting sort of way.
If you’ve read my blog a few times, you know I like to run at work during my lunch hour. Occasionally, coworkers say they want to come for a run with me sometime, and I always encourage people to bring their workout clothes and come running any time they want. When Major Donley offered to run with me, I hesitated. Major Donley is much faster than I am. He ran one of the 5k races that I participated in during the last couple of months, and finished a good 6 minutes (and some change) before I did. To be honest, I was a little nervous about the prospect of running with him.
On August 5th, I was heading out for my lunchtime run, and I heard a voice call my name. It was Major Donley. He had just pulled into the parking lot on his way back from the gym, and asked if I wanted him to run with me. What could I say? I was outside in my running clothes. Too late to pretend I wasn’t planning on running today. So I said sure, he parked, and we started out.
Major Donley asked how far I planned to run, and I said five miles. I had my Runkeeper app keeping track of the pace, and the app kept chiming to me that I was running too fast. Average pace for mile one: 10:00; mile two: 9:48; mile three: 9:50. We kept running. It was hot that day, around 100, and it was supposed to be my easy run day. On those days I average an 11:30-12:00 minute pace. I didn’t go out that day prepared to run that fast, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask Major Donley to slow down, especially since I knew that he was already going at a slow pace for him. I huffed and puffed and tried desperately to keep up, but in the end I had to walk the last mile.
After that day, Major Donley asked me several times if I wanted to run again. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t want to run with him. I had pushed myself to the limit the one time we’d run together, and I was not looking to work that hard on my lunch break. Some days I would even sneak out for my run, hoping he wouldn’t see me on the way out. But one day last week, he caught me.
Last Wednesday, he found me before lunch and told me that he wanted to run with me again, and to be in his office around 11:00 with my running gear on. When I showed up, he changed and we went for a quick three mile run in the rain. I didn’t take my phone since it was raining, but he had his Garmin GPS watch on. He didn’t tell me the pace we were running at, but there were several times during the run when I felt like I could have gone a little faster. When we got done, he said we ran just over three miles, and averaged a 10:30 pace. That’s not my fastest, but it is about a minute faster than my usual lunchtime run pace. I felt great that I had run at a slightly faster pace, and even felt like I could have run faster.
Major Donley showed up at my desk yesterday shortly before lunchtime again. He asked if I planned to run. I said I didn’t really want to. He basically told me to stop slacking, and he used my own words against me. He said, “I read your blog, and last week you didn’t run as much as you had wanted to – so let’s go.” I got up and changed into my workout clothes, leaving my phone since Major Donley had his GPS watch.
As we started running, he asked what pace I wanted to run at. I remembered the last time we ran, so I said around a 10:30 pace. We planned to run about five miles. When we got to the turnaround point, he suggested we keep running to the bridge a half mile away to bump the run up to six miles. I went with it. When we got to the bridge, he asked how I felt. I got the impression that he wanted to keep running, so I said I was fine, and we kept going. He didn’t mention what pace we were running at, and it felt kind of relaxing not to be worrying about it. We ended up running 7.27 miles by the time we got back to our starting point. When we finished up, he looked at his watch and told me our pace – 9:49. We ran 7.27 miles in one hour and eleven minutes at a 9:49 average pace. To put that in perspective, I ran my last 10k race (which is only 6.2 miles) in an hour and eleven minutes.
Major Donley challenges me. He inspires me to do better. When I run with him, I work harder. I run faster. I push myself. It’s not easy, but I feel that each run I’ve done with him has had value beyond just my normal training.
Thanks, Major Donley.
