"stop trying to race me"

i've been running Lake Merced pretty regularly for a few weeks now and i am basically starting to recognize the regulars.
there is this one guy who i have seen a bunch of times and today after i ran my first lap, i saw him stretching. i smiled and was surprised when he actually talked to me, "hey, you should stop trying to race me, its hurting your pace."
upon hearing that, i was way too curious to keep going and stopped to see what he was talking about. apparently, he had noticed me trying to pass him a bunch of times. he went on to let me know that my problem was that i sped up too much for a short distance and was then forced to walk. this makes sense since he always ends up kicking my ass in the run overall.
to get to the point, he asked what speed i was going for and volunteered to pace me for a lap around the lake (4.5 miles). the challenge was that no walking was allowed at all. regardless of how many miles i have racked up during my training, there has always been walking integrated with the running. but i couldnt quite pass up the free coaching.
fast-forward to the end of the story, i ended up running the whole thing without walking. this kid was genius. my goal now is to try and keep up that pace for longer periods of time.

but the most amusing part of this encounter has nothing to do with running. at some point along the run, he asked me "what school do you go to?" i figured he must mean college and just told him that i graduated a few years ago. turns out he is a junior in HIGH SCHOOL and is going to be the captain for the varsity cross country team next year. i almost tripped when he told me that. he seemed almost as shocked when i informed him how old i was. the obvious was stated and he informed me that he was in middle-school when i was in college.
believe me, if i could have possibly run any faster, i would have, to get that lap over with as fast as possible. needless to say, the last 20 minutes was run pretty much in silence.
it was the ultimate awkward moment, but the running lesson learned was well worth it.