Training with Friends

One of my friends is currently training for the Walt Disney World Marathon in January. Actually, two of my friends are running it (more to come later). Friend "A" plans on doing a full Ironman in May, so this is part of his training for that. He's natuarlly a cycler, so running isn't his number 1 passion. I've been talking to him about training for awhile now and I'm going to go on part of his 20-mile run on Sunday. As of right now, we are going skiing Saturday, driving back on Sunday, and then running later in the day. I have a feeling I might be a little tired...

I feel like it is hard to find someone to train with me. I run fairly fast, and faster than all of my female friends that run. I also log many more miles than the majority of my friends. Finding someone who runs close to the same pace and has the same distance goals in mind is hard. Do you run with a partner? Do you have similar abilities, or how do you make up for your differences? I'm excited that I'll be running with "Friend A" because his training runs have been about 8-minute/mile pace, which is just a tad slower than what I currently run. I'll be meeting him at his halfway point and then log 10 miles together. I don't remember the last time I ran with someone...should be an interesting change.

Now, my other friend running this marathon - "Friend B" - has a different approach, one might say. He's run a few other marathons (2 I believe), and doesn't think he needs much training to run them. I asked him yesterday how many miles he is up to and he said 8. I wanted to say that I am not even training for anything right now and am passed that! Aren't you worried?!??! I would be having major panic attacks if I was in that situation. So I asked him his goal pace, which he told me was 8:30/mile. I wanted to say WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Is it possible to run that fast of a split with sooooo little training. It's not like he bikes or anything, either. I'm a little concerned.

Do you have crazy friends, too?