People ask how I train alone. They ask how I can go out and run repeats and intervals by myself and offer to find me a training partner, but I have many training partners.
The friend who calls up every blue moon and runs miles around the lake with me and the janitor who cleans the indoor track and bleachers as I run by, they are my training partners. The woman from the print shop, who lost a lot of weigh by walking everyday, and the man from the cafeteria who comes and walks the stairs, they are my training partners. The older gentlemen who talks to me during my rest periods (yesterday we chatted about Marion Jones' come back), and the equipment manager who offers me ice after my workouts and asks about my meets, they are my training partners. Everyday I go to train on the indoor track I feel good knowing that they are all their, and I wonder what happened to them when they don't show up; I was sad I did not see the print shop lady on Monday then on the way home I saw her braving the winter cold and I was proud. These are my training partners. Their words of encouragement, their conversation between killer repeats, and their courtesy of staying out of lane one makes my training easier.
