If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see an ugly bald chick at the back of a pack of elite women. That's no chick. It's Chris Wiley, an old friend I recently had the pleasure of running into on a morning run. Chris and I used to sling pizza at Fellini's back in the day, and even played music together a little bit back when he lived in the green house on Kennesaw Street. I remember he had this menacing Chow mix who was always judging me, waiting for me to slip up.
Anyway, Chris is not only one of the nicest guys I know, but it turns out he's also one of the fastest.
He was way more into cycling back then, but over the years he began to see the light and leave the stuffy world of spandex-wrapped gear snobs for the purer, more nobler sport of running. These days Chris runs mostly trail races, and from what I hear on the internet, he evens win some of them.
So I was pretty stoked when I ran into him on the street a few weeks ago. I figured I'd join him for a few miles. Wrong. It took me about half a minute to realize that we were going faster than I'd ever run before, and another half a minute to start completely doubting myself. We could not have made it more than a mile before I had to bail and get back to a more humane pace.
And even though it screwed up the rest of my run (think of it like warming up with an all-out sprint), it was great to see Chris, and also great to get a little taste of what fast really feels like. I'll try to work on my fast, and maybe the next time I see Chris I'll be able to keep up with him for two miles. Until then, Supervictory salutes local ATL badass Chris Wiley.
You go girl!
-SV
