Back, stronger than ever

Funny, taking nearly the past two weeks off for film festival fun/work hasn't affected me. I didn't know if I could handle 15K today but it turned out to be... comfortable. I don't want to say easy, because it took some concentration. I met up with Frankie this morning, and truth be told it's a good thing both of us had agreed to this because neither of us would've run the way we ran together. That is, we made it through the entire distance with five small walking breaks over the 1:41 we were out. I don't know who was more surprised by that -- me or him, because the last time it was just the two of us, I nearly died. It was pre-Chicago and we did 7mi -- way more than I could handle, and mostly because I ran at Frankie's pace, not mine -- through my least favorite part of the waterfront, otherwise known as The Spit (one of the Toronto marathon routes goes through this, which is a key reason I won't run this one. Ever.)
Today was different. I am a stronger runner (comparatively to a year-and-a-half ago) and Frankie is less focused on training. Not to say he hasn't been training, but that the intensity has been reduced. Which means it was a comfortable run.
We had planned our route to coincide with Yumke, who was doing 17 miles. We tried to guess at which point we'd see him.. on our way out to Humber Bridge? On the way back? Before the country club? The pool? All these landmarks we passed and not once did Yumke cross our paths. Turns out he slept through our run. He deserves a bit of sleeping in.

I feel a bit more at ease after today's run. I'm not sure I could've run another 6K today without difficulty, but I'm definitely less worried about the half-mary in two weeks.