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My secret is out. Not only is my “secret identity” known (everything except the rabbi part), but my blog has been discovered. I guess I would have made a terrible spy. Of course, that is only if I was really trying to stay hidden in the first place.

It started simply enough. I was trying to find a copy of the team’s schedule online. I did a search, with few results from Google. One of the only ones was the team page on Facebook. With little thought, something seemingly endemic to Facebook interactions, I hit “like” and continued my search. Moments later, I had a friend request from Nainesh, one of my favorite runners on the team.

Nainesh, who was born in india, has the look of a runner. He is thin, strong, tall and fast. He is also a leader. I don’t know whether he is the team captain, but the guys on the team seem to follow his lead. He leads by example rather than by force. He’s quick with a smile, and best of all, at least for me; he was the first guy to treat me like a member of the team. Now he wanted to be friends. I accepted without giving it much thought.

Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, we agreed to do a 10 mile run together, despite my apprehensions that I would slow him down.

I suppose this is the part where I am supposed to tell you that not only did I not slow him down, but I more than held my own. Alas, I can not. While I pushed the pace, I frequently had to check that he was alive, so light was his breathing. Even going up “death hill”, never more accurately named than that day, I couldn’t be sure that he had a pulse. When I told him that the hill seemed easy to him, he replied, without the slightest arrogance, “It was”.

As we ran we chatted, at least as much as my labored breathing allowed. That’s when he told me he discovered and read the blog. I must admit that I panicked a bit when I heard that, but he said he liked it, and I decided to keep writing openly and honestly. I hope he likes what I wrote today.