I’m at Starbucks Tampines right now using Wireless@SG, and it’s my first time blogging on the go! Is this considered mobile blogging?
Anyways, just came back from a run at Bedok Reservoir and something weird happened while running. See, when I run I find great pleasure in overtaking other runners (my competitive streak rarely rears its ugly head, but there you go). Having ran from my house to the reservoir itself, I was already feeling a little tired, but I decided to pick up my pace anyway.
So it all started all well, and I overtook a few people, and at the 500m mark I ran past this dude who had been walking but decided to run after seeing me catching up with him.
So I passed him, and suddenly after a couple of metres or so, I heard footsteps behind me. Thinking it was a runner wanting to overtake me, I continued running as per normal. But the weird thing was, the person (I suspect it was the guy I had passed) never overtook me.
I started speeding up and even as I passed the 1km, 1.5km, 2km markers, the pounding still continued behind me yet the person never passed me at all.
I guess I could have turned behind to see who exactly was following me, but for some reason I didn’t.
I reached the 4km mark, and decided to sprint the rest of the 400m. At this point, I couldn’t hear the pounding on the gravel behind me anymore, so I figure he/she must have slowed down. I completed the run, and headed straight to the water cooler, where I tried to see who it was who had inadvertently made me run slightly faster than usual (24 minutes). This was useless, because there were so many people milling about plus I never turned to look at the person (D’oh!)
And so, I still don’t know who it was who was behind me the whole almost 4km of the run. The damsel in me (for lack of a better word, because I am hardly a damsel) says psychostalkerrunner, but I suspect (actually Erfen suggested) that it was probably someone who was using me as a pacesetter. Which I am cool with.
So there you go. Is this a normal practice for runners? I dunno, but it sure was interesting. I guess I don’t mind being used as someone’s pacesetter, although I would have appreciated being asked first. Is it just me? There must be some sort of running etiquette, no?
If he/she was simply using me to set their pace, then I’m glad I didn’t turn around and yell “What’s your bloody problem, stop following me!” as I was tempted to do a few times during the run.
Oh wells!
Think, thought, thunk. 