Don't Piss Where You Run!

Oh boy! if I thought Tuesday had been a rough day at work I was in for  a RUDE awakening yesterday,Tuesday looked like a walk in the park compared to what I had to contend w/,bad enough I began the day having to transport 17 skids of supplies down to the storeroom w/ the pallet jack since the electric jack had died on me the day b4{the start of my problems on Tuesday} but suitably knackered from that the loading dock got rocked w/ 111 pieces from Ups and 110 from Rps,the dock looked like a frigging warehouse by mid morning but credit to my crew we knuckled down and knocked it out and by lunch time all I was thinking about was a nice easy 8 mile run post work to round out my day......

Since I'd gotten a vague idea of my pace on Tuesday{roughly 9.5 per mile} I didn't see any need to time todays run,leave the watch at home and just enjoy the run.....seemed like a good idea at the time!!
Just as I reached the Art Museum on the inbound leg of the run a runner I'd previously overtaken somewhere between my turnaround point and the Art Museum flew by me on my inside on the grass......I should've just let him go........but NO I saw this as a gauntlet being thrown down and duly accepted his challenge and thus ensued a pissing contest!!
Between the Art Museum and the Market St bridge "Runner X" and yours truly picked up the pace,at first he didn't have much of a lead on me after blowing by me so I figured I'd try and reel him in,he in turn responded to this by upping his pace and rather than back down I kept chasing after him,a couple of times as I came w/in a stride of pulling level w/ him he'd up his pace and I'd have to find another gear to respond.

When "Runner X" headed up the steps at Market St I breathed a sigh of relief and eased off the pace,I still had somewhere in the region of a mile and three quarters/two miles to run  and knew I was going to pay for my bravado,sure enough the final mile found me w/ legs like rubber but I was in a roundabout way happy,it's good to know the competitive fire still burns w/in and when I reintroduce the 8.4 mile tempo run plus repeats to my rotation in a few weeks time it's good to know there's still some life in my knee lift and leg turnover,that said I'd like to avoid any more pissing contests......till the next one presents it's self as I'm sure it will.