The Highlander....There Can Be Only One

Sean Connery as "Ramirez" in the cult classic film, "The Highlander." As we all know, there can be only one highlander at a time...

After a few months of early morning running, you begin to notice some peculiarities...call them coincidences. One that Landy picked up on was the fact that Dominic and Charlie never ran at the same time. Oh sure, there was the whole Charlie stress fracture thing, and the fact that you have to be willing to meet at no later than 4:30 a.m. to run with Charlie. They passed each other in the middle of our two loop "shift change," but never hit the roads at the same time. I called this phenomenon "The Highlander" problem, wherein there can be only one speedster on the road at a given time.

We're not sure who has the fastest wheels in our RUR group. In this case, the line of speculation concerns only the sprint to the finish of a run. This is not a fixed number either--from a block, .25 mile, or more, depending on who is trying to get themselves across the line first. Dominic, Charlie, and Landy are all quick. Current thinking maintains that Dominic and Charlie might have the high performance wheels for a good end sprint. But we couldn't set up the showdown...

Until this morning. Amped and awake from evening/night espressos, Dominic posted for a 4:30 a.m. start. He, Charlie, and I did our "Charlie Loop"--Washington Street, out to 322; 322 to Oxford Road; turn around at Cedar Point; back down Oxford Road, past the YMCA, through 5-corners light, then overdrive up Idlewild to "da corner" at Aurora.

This morning (the first loop) was one of the quickest paced group runs I think we've done. I knew I had to keep something in the tank for a total of about 13 miles, but you can't not run quick with Charlie and Dominic. The pace moved well up to the Y and I tried to spread the field as we were coming through 5-corners.

I opened up a decent run (but not a sprint) with Charlie next to me and Dominic right behind me, where I could hear footsteps--my goal was to instigate the showdown and let 'em go. Just beyond Hanson Street it was on. Charlie took off and Dominic wheeled out from behind me. Truly a blur as the hammer dropped and they cranked towards da corner. And the winner was...

THE END

Now that would be mean, wouldn't it :)

Charlie let out a YAWP as Dominic edged him out to win round 1 of the showdown. Somehow, I don't think we've seen the end of the competition. As the three of us were catching our breath, Joel came over from the track where he had been warming up to start loop 2 of our morning run.

"Nice to just see this big BLUR of runners go by when I'm out here!"

Thankfully, Joel took it easy on Dominic and I for the second loop around town.