The Partner

I deeply appreciate my running partner. Mark is the one who keeps me running. Because I know he will appear at my gate, he gets me out of bed every morning. He offers me ridiculous stories, laughter, and equal measures of courage and sarcasm to keep me mobile.

So when I woke up at 5am this morning, despite feeling tired and wishing that I could burrow back under the covers, the impending arrival of my running partner led me to pull on my running kit and head for the back door. Dash, the Springer Spaniel, looked eagerly in my direction and I nodded: “Let’s go boy”. Despite my heavy mood, he rushed out the back door to the gate. I placed the lead on him and we both looked down the road in the direction of Mark’s home. Nothing! The road was empty. No sign of him.

As I peered down the empty road, the realization hit me – today is Thursday. Mark and I had spoken a week ago about running the time trial with the club on Thursday afternoon. So he was safely ensconced in his bed while Dash and I stood in an empty road. We looked at each other, and returned to bed. We would run this evening.

Postscript: I sent my faithful, dependable, indispensable running partner a message at 5pm to confirm our run at the time trial. He answered: “Not today – I had a hard day and will not make it”.

Aaargh. 

      

(I did run the time trial)