I had a running partner today. S is a faster runner than me, but she graciously ran at my pace and took walk breaks when I wanted to. She's planning on doing the marathon next year, too. This was the first time we had a chance to run together. It was great! She challenged me to run a bit faster and take fewer walk breaks than I usually do. It was the kind of pushing that I needed -- it wasn't anything I couldn't do, just something that I hadn't been pushing myself to.
The only bad part is that I think I twisted my knee a little on the last part of the run. I iced it down when I got back home, but it's still a bit painful. I'm going to look into getting a brace for it. I just hope it's not bad -- except for my back earlier this year, I've done a good job of staying injury-free. Let's hope I didn't break the trend today.