i got thinking of old times and old coaches....would have been fall of 1969...i was running college cross country...small college.....4.5 to 6 miles....but my best distance was 20K....(12.43 miles)...any who ....Mondays or Tuesdays when we didn't have a race until the weekend he had us run a 13 mile road course....well we usually took our time and he got a bit upset with us....( a huge understatement).....
so he said " anyone who beat me, got the next day off....and if any one(s) did i had to run 5 miles per...so the rest of the team bribed the one guy who could test me at that distance....well we went flying past the 6 mile mark in a tad under 30 minutes....and i got a little worried...i had hung behind him and let him set the pace....so i knew i had to get rid of him....came up on his shoulder and said " pace is a little slow ( a bald face lie ) can we pick it up a little and threw a 4:30 mile at him....so he disappeared...and i packed in the sand bags...4 or so miles at a 5:30 pace...i got a little over a mile from home....we had a mile marker....he was sitting  there in his VW and questioned my time....i told him you only said i had to beat them....you didn't say how fast.....said he....i think you let yourself tie up...i bet you a steak dinner you can run the last mile in under 4:30.....a ran a 4:22....his wife grilled a great steak.....