A runner's little helper

It was like Brief Encounter but without the repressed English emotions or perhaps it was more like the song Strangers in the Night except we were not exchanging glances.  In fact we resolutely kept our gazes forward.

The other night I ran with a stranger and it was a brief but extremely welcomed encounter.  I was heading into the last 3k of my 10k circuit in the park.  It was hot and humid and I was tiring and overheating.  I was determined to finish it running not walking when quite by chance I fell into step with another runner.  We were roughly the same height and build and it turned out a matching pace.  So for the next 2k we ran together.  Not looking at each other or acknowledging that we were but we knew we were running together.  We held back if one of us got caught behind people and we sped up to avoid obstacles.
 

It was a strangely intimate and brief encounter.  It did not last because as I headed into my last 1k I began to develop a slight cramping in my calf so I fell back dramatically.  He carried on.  He did not look back and it did not matter.  We had shared two kilometres together and it certainly got me through an otherwise tough patch where I might have just halted to a walk.

Full moon over Lumpini Park

Celebratory running distance: 10k that meant I have completed the Nike+ orange level - that is 249km run since August 2011.  Not bad, girl, not bad.