Day 263 Wednesday 19th September 6.9 miles miles : miles to date 1750.7 RUNNERS ROAD RAGE ROCKS! A normal mid week trot turned into a little corker tonight. I had been due to cover eight miles in an hour with the lads, but had to bail through work. Late school collection duty also meant I had a limited time, so I went out with the intention of a slightly faster shorter run. I covered the first mile in about 6.45 and decided to pick it up. As I was halfway through the next one, I could hear footsteps in the dark behind me until eventually a young lad went past. I glanced at my watch to see I was running at 6.25 mile pace. Game on. If you are going to go past me at that pace, in the dark, with no one else around, you had better decide to dig deep and keep it going. I increased the speed after getting over the shock and the youngster clearly felt my presence and pushed on. He went in the opposite direction of where I was going and I decided to stick with him until he caved tracking him closely. A mile later he did, so the competitive old bloke tried to stop breathing too hard, waltzed past and gave him the thumbs up as I did. After a slower first mile, I went through 3 in under twenty minutes and a mile later I realised I had run too far and had to keep it going to get back to the school so pushed on. I slowed a little without the youngster to chase but was still on for a sub 40 minute 10k, until I hit a longish and increasingly steep hill in the last half mile. I tried to keep the speed up, but dipped a little and went through 10k in 40:09 which on my own, in the dark, getting lost on a housing estate and slowing to check my bearings, whilst dodging traffic I'll take every time. Guess I owe the wee lad a thank you, so cheers matey.