Yup, Just Me and the Olympian

My friend's first book!!

Joy here...On Saturday morning we got up bright and early (as usual) to head to the indoor dome for our workout.  Later on in the day we were hopping a flight out of town so that we could attend a surprise party (!!!) for a good friend of ours who has been promoted and awarded tenure at her university (which happens to be the same university where I used to work).

I am super proud of her, as this past year has been a big year for her:  She became a mom a year ago July; her book was published; she just bought a new house; and now she's officially a tenured Associate Professor.

So it was with excitement and anticipation that we drove through the cold, Ottawa streets heading for our workout.  I think this is probably the second time in my entire life that I've been able to keep a secret and not ruin someone's surprise, so the fact that we were to be getting on a plane shortly after our workout filled me with glee (and not a little bit of pride at the fact that I had pulled it off).

My run workout was scheduled as:  drills + strides + 10x40s @ stride pace w/ 1:1 recovery.  What that means is that I had to run for 40s, rest for 40s, and do it all over again 10 times after doing an hour's worth of warm up and drills.

Okay, fine.

It's still a heck of a lot easier than what some of the other more serious athletes were doing as their workouts.

For instance, one of the Olympians (who I've mentioned on this blog before and whose profile can be found here), was doing some gruelling 400m repeats.  There was another guy who was running 1km repeats.  A lot of them were sweating, running hard, and making me look like the neophyte I am.  However, it's a good group of people that Coach Woods has gathered together, and they cheer me as I run just as much as they cheer each other, the more elite athletes.

Competing for her country:  Go Mel, go!

And as I was doing one of my little 200m repeats (about the distance I was running in my 40s intervals), who started up one of her 400m repeats?  The Olympian who is ranked 14th in the world in her sport (modern pentathlon).  Yup, just me and the Olympian.

So she's running to the left of me in her lane, and I'm just to the right of her, sticking in my lane and sure that she's just about to pull ahead of me.

But, lo and behold, we were running step for step around the corner and into the straightaway.  My legs were pumping, as were hers, and we were matched together stride for stride.

Before I got too excited, my iPhone timer beeped indicating my 40s were up, so I pulled off the track, breathing heavy, while she effortlessly just pulled away from me to continue on with the rest of her loop.  So, uh it's not like I really ran with an Olympian stride for stride...just for a few seconds.

However, when she is standing on the podium in 2016, as I'm sure she will be, you better believe that I'm going to build up this story to epic proportions.  You've been warned.

I ran with an Olympian.

Over and out,
Joy