My New Trainer

So, I am training for the utah valley marathon-- June 12!
The other day I was running on the treadmill next to this older guy. He had some mental disability, I think down syndrome, but was cruising at a modest 15 incline with a nice jog. Impressive. He started kind of talking to me. About things like bears. I was running at a 7.6 (about an 8 minute mile) which is the pace I want to run at the marathon so I can qualify for Boston. He said, you know, If you can run at 7.6 I bet you can run at 8.6.
I was like hmm. Thats a good point. I'll give that a try for a while. So I ran at 8.6. After a couple of minutes he was like, "Can you run at 9.6?" Oh boy. Uhh.. for a little while, so I started running at a 9.6. I was SOAKING with sweat. He was like "wow! I didn't think you would do it. I bet you can't run at a 10.5"
Sheesh dude. You are killing me. But I wanted to humor him... so 10.5 we go.
After about 5 min at a 10.5, I thought I was going to die.
Then he leaned over and was like, "this is the last time I will bother you I promise. Can you do 11?"
Dahhh. What is this The Biggest Loser?
But I couldn't say no. So I finished the rest of my run at 11 (which was just a little more than half a mile left). I shut off the treadmill. My legs were like jello.
And then I said, hey, thanks for pushing me (I don't really know if that was what he was trying to do, I think he was just curious) and he gave me a big grin and a thumbs up.
And I will probably remember him every time I am training-- to push myself to do a little better.