Since my arrival in the Netherlands about four months ago, many co-workers have told me that I must link up with the German runner, Jurgen. Many folks were talking about this guy like he was an elite athlete. About six weeks ago I finally bumped into Jurgen as I was coming back from a run and he was starting his. We talked about getting in a run together. But because of my recent travels to Germany and limited running during marathon recovery, I was not able to run with Jurgen until today. During the run we got to know each other talking about our background and running experience. It turns out that Jurgen was indeed an elite or sub-elite runner 15 years ago (he is 38 now). He has PRs of 14' for 5k, 29' for 10k, 1:04 for the half, and 2:18 for the marathon. He was quick to say that that was the past, but then I starting laughing when he said he currently "only" runs 10k in 31-32 minutes. Jurgen said he has pacing duties for a German female elite runner at the Hamburg Marathon in April. He has to pace her at least through 35K at sub-2:30 pace. Here I am dreaming of running sub-2:30 one day and he has to run sub-2:30 pace on a given day. Incredible! I am excited about training with Jurgen in the upcoming months. Hopefully, this will lead me to faster times in all distances.
Today's Run: 8 miles @ 6:42 pace
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