Running with an Olympian

I was headed out on just a "normal" run last week when I was pretty sure I saw former Olympian Carrie Tollefson. We planned an early morning run together like 2 years ago, ran a short bit together before my track meet last summer (see fun selfie as the 2nd photo in that post), and she bumped into me pushing the stroller on my last run of last August before being injured, but we're not regular running buds or anything.

She turned onto Summit Ave as I was about a block from crossing Summit on my normal "straight and boring socially distant" course. Here are my previous 6 runs before seeing Carrie, and they are all just straight down my road with little bits added in:

Boring, but mainly pedestrian-free.

At the very last second, I thought "Aww hell, I'll turn to chase down Carrie to chat for a bit." So I did. I caught her after a few blocks, and we chatted about our kids, COVID-19, weekend plans, etc. I had to REALLY PICK UP THE PACE to keep up with her. She turned off after just over a mile so she could meet up with a friend to finish the run. She posted her Garmin on social media post-run:

I retweeted that tweet (that paired up with her Insta post) and added this:

Carrie mis-understood my comment. (And I can see how because I wasn't super clear.) She thought that I meant I SLOWED UP to 6:10 pace to chat. But I meant I had to SPEED UP to 6:10 pace to keep up with her! Here was our back-and-forth:

Here was my "unusual" run down Summit Ave:

My pace. The red was with Carrie before slowing up at the turn-around
at Hamline Ave. (The dip before mile 2 was heading up the hill to Snelling.)

I ended up doing that early section with Carrie in 6:10 pace, and I did my overall 4.8 miles in 6:52 pace. So the same pace that Carrie did her random 13.1 mile run in. So we have the same level of fitness. Easily. Totally. Undoubtedly. ;)