Running into Pierre

One of my favorite running bloggers, Harlem 26.2, decided to stop posting recently. He used to title a lot of his posts "Running into ...". In some cases, the reference was literal, such as "Running into a Train", and sometimes less so, as in "Running into a Double Latte". It was a great blog, and I'll miss it. When I decided to post about an unexpected sighting of a runner that I had met once before, it just seemed natural to title the post "Running into Pierre" in honor of Harlem 26.2.

A few hundred yard into the the 2007 NYC Marathon, a runner approached me and asked what pace I was targeting. It turned out that we had similar goals, and we ran together for a while. In the next few miles, I learned that Pierre lived in my neighborhood, was also running his first marathon, and had trained entirely on his own. I found this last bit very impressive, as I had relied heavily on my running club for support -- especially in completely the long 18 and 20 mile training runs that one needs to do before running a marathon. Pierre had gone out and run 20 miles in Central Park on his own. That's a long way.

I really enjoyed meeting him, and I was disappointed when we got separated in the crowds after three miles or so. I've often wondered how the rest of the day went for him. I didn't know his last name, so I couldn't even look up his results.

This morning, as I was heading down 96th Street to the park, a runner coming the other way called out asking if I was John. Sure enough, it was Pierre. I was amazed that he was able to recognize me -- it's been 5 months since we briefly meet. I was really happy to hear that he ran a really good time -- a lot better than I had done. We chatted a bit -- we're both signed up for this year's marathon but not yet committed, etc.

We ran on our separate ways, and I realized that once again, I hadn't gotten his last name or even suggested that we run together some time. I could have at least suggested that he look into joining the Flyers. Hopefully, it will continue to be a small world and I'll see him out there again.