Notes
Easy run with Norb, we started at the armory, ran to the tempo loop and came back.
We had a great conversation during this run - he told me about the classes he signed up for next semester and traveling to Japan, and I shared some of my own travel experiences. We also talked about Nats, the course, and our times for a bit. The best part, without a doubt, came during the last couple of miles: Norb asked me how I felt about being so much older than everyone else around me on the team, and I asked him the opposite - how did he feel about being teammates with a guy 12 years older than him? This transitioned into talking about role models, and then we discussed our parents and the challenges they faced in raising their children in a new culture (his father and mother are Puerto Rican and Panamanian, respectively, while mine are Tunisian and Palestinian). We recognized the great efforts our parents have put into raising us (and if I can add, I think Norb's parents did an excellent job), and also realized that part of growing and maturing involves acknowledging our parents' potential mistakes and shortcomings and learning from them.
The run itself was pretty good, we just ripped right through it. Couldn't ask for a better training partner, and I can't wait to see what he achieves in the coming months.