3 mile run with a neighbor

As I walked out of my house to start my run last night after work, my neighbor came running out said she wanted to go with me. Of course, I said sure! She knows the neighborhood much better than I do, and she has been running for many years. I figured it would be good to shake up my usual route and see what happened. 

Oh my Lord, that girl can run! Of course, she's a skinny little twig, and totally in shape. I am not however-which made it a challenging run for me. She (like me) likes to gab while running, and that made it that much more difficult for me. The first mile we did we completed in 11 minutes! That is a record for me! A good one, and yes, I'm proud I did it, but the last two miles were sort of brutal because of that. I wound up slowing her down to a 12 minute mile, but that is still pretty fast for me.

How am I supposed to slow her down without being rude? Has this scenario ever happened to you on a run? What would be the right thing to say or do to slow your partner down? Do you just do your own thing, and hope the other person gets the message, or do you say something? I've run with people that are faster than me before, but I knew them pretty well, and felt like I was able to communicate with them about their pace versus mine. What do you do or say when you run with someone you don't know that well, and they are not at your pace (either too fast or too slow)?

Positives: I got to (finally) run with her, set a new personal best, got to see a new perspective of my neighborhood, and best of all, I got to run with someone. 


I don't know about you, but I love running with people-even when they run like lightning. I enjoy the companionship, and I love talking as the run progresses. Some of the coolest things happens while I'm running with people. Of course though, it is nice to do your own thing from time to time, and just turn up the iPod and go. What do you prefer, and why?

Catch you later, Allison