How about this: Tell him (politely) that since it's supposedly so easy, that he should go out there and run 17 miles. At your pace. And he can't back off and use a bicycle. If he actually takes you up on your offer, you can then have the pleasure of seeing how far he actually gets.

Fred,

Thanks for the tips but believe me I'm not lonely.  I do personally believe that running is not a team sport and that most runners do it because it is a solitary activity (ok you can all bash me now).  Let me share a quick story from last night...sometimes support comes in unexpected ways.  After work in my car I'm going to plug in my ipod (my running ipod i might add) like I do all the time...and its dead.  Uh oh.  So i figure it just needs a charge. Go home and plug it in and its still dead...I mean really dead.  So I've had some tough situations I've been dealing with the past week and honestly can't really emotionally handle one more negative and pretty much freak out.  I've got an 8 mile run in the mornign and there is NO way I can do it sans ipod and I have to go out and can't get to the store...blah blah blah, you get the picture.  Well my family is looking at me like I'm nuts like they usually do when anything I do has to do with running and i leave pretty upset (and I'm not a cryer I might add but I was pretty busted up...it's been a bad week).  I come home a few hours later and lo and behold a new ipod fully loaded with my playlist and charged up is waiting for me....I guess they do support me, just not in obvious ways.

Cyndi

Steve,

I am lucky to have someone like you to get me started on running marathons 10 years ago and keep up with all the travel plans, race schedules, pushing me to run faster etc...

It ha been an adventuress 10 years!