The Running Partner

I've had sex with two women in my life. The first was my first girlfriend, and the original love of my life. When you get together in school and survive that, college and university you start to believe it's destined to last forever. She was gorgeous, easily the hottest in our year at school. She was tiers above me and the only reason we ended up together is because one of her hot, popular friends sank a few levels to date a mate of mine and we were thrust into a new friend group together. From there I charmed her. What can I say? I couldn't win her over with equally good looks but there was no doubting we had a lot in common. She gave me a chance. In fact she kissed me first.

It was one of those relationships that looks unusual from the outside, but our friends completely understood. We shared so many hobbies and interests and our personalities matched up perfectly as we worked our way through school and then college. She was such a sweetheart, shy at first but she grew up at a quicker rate than me. She had ambitions and I was just lazier than she was. I was smarter than my achievements suggested and it looked to her at times like I was trying to live and enjoy life with the least effort exerted as possible. It was a valuable lesson and I never learned it quickly enough.

We got together at 16 and survived until 24. It was an incredible eight years, and then she cheated. I'm not looking for sympathy, just providing the tale as it happened. She snogged a guy on a work night out and it answered some questions about what she was missing in our relationship. I suppose we were coasting a little bit by the end and the spark wasn't what it once was but she was everything to me. At the time I tried to make it work but she stuck to her guns and called it quits. Back then it was hard to give up what I had always known so I worked harder to save our relationship than she did. If I could live that moment again I would have ended it the moment I knew she cheated but I didn't have that in me. It turns out she did me a massive favour.

The second person I have had sex with is her mum.

This is not a revenge plot years in the making but life works in mysterious ways and just like her daughter, she kissed me first. I'm innocent. I guess you can decide that for yourself.

Ellie and I broke up in 2019. Early summer I think it was. I had spent a long time with a girl miles out of my league and I think it set me up for failure in dating. I took a while out before giving it a go but when I did I had this target in mind of a girl who looked just as good as her. This wasn't realistic. There was no way I could back to back on worldies. I struggled to accept that it would probably never get that good again. The dry spell dragged on and I came off the dating apps for a while. My confidence dropped and I lost my way with regards to my fitness. I started to believe I would get back in the saddle when I felt comfortable in my body again, but that took a few years. Then when I got back into shape I realised that I only charmed Ellie because she was 16 and dumb.

I got used to a life without sex and just hoped someone pretty would take a liking to me at the gym or at a gig. I was coasting again, but this time on my own. But that's enough about me for now.

Ellie started a new relationship. I'm not sure if it was with the guy she kissed at that party or someone else. She's still with him today. Good luck to them. She's a nice girl and I'm not bitter. I did fuck her mum though.

The less fun part of the story surrounds her mum, Elizabeth. She goes by Lizzie. Her husband died about 18 months after I left the family. He had been ill for a little while. I didn't know it at the time but found out at the funeral. I had to go and show my face. He had basically been my father-in-law for a third of my life. I never married his daughter but I always felt very welcomed into their family. He was a great guy and didn't deserve to go so young. He was 54. Cancer. You know how it goes.

The funeral cured some or maybe all of the lingering pain between me and Ellie. She didn't need that hanging over her so I didn't show any sign of it. We talked about her dad. My parents were there too. It was like old times, but much more depressing. I didn't see much of Lizzie at the funeral. She had an entourage surrounding her at all times but we found a moment to pass on our condolences and she appreciated my family being there.

That would have been late 2020 and it was the last time I saw her until around two years later. This time it was on an app. It was quite a surprise. Everyone has needs but I didn't expect to see her profile pop up on my screen. I didn't swipe her or anything, as funny as I thought it might have been. I saw her in person a couple of months later. I was running along a local trail when I bumped into her and Ellie's older sister on a jog of their own. She was wearing the shirt for a 10k race in the region emblazoned with the year 2022.

"You're doing the 10k?" I asked her. "Oh sorry, is that last years?"

"It is indeed, but I'm running this year's as well. I managed to drag this one along this year too." Lizzie replied, squeezing Alice's bicep in turn. For the record, Ellie's sister is hot as fuck too.

"It's freezing." Alice noted, still perhaps not quite onboard with her mother's idea. She was right too. The early spring weather came with a chill in the air, especially so early in the morning. The ground was wet after an overnight shower, and small splodges of mud covered all of their running trainers. "Are you doing it?"

"I haven't committed yet." I answered, a little disappointed in myself for the lack of urgency. I had been running for a while now, much preferring it to the gym environment.

"Oh you should." Lizzie insisted. "If I can survive then you can."

"I don't know about that but I'm right on the edge. I'll work up the courage soon and book a slot."

She seemed glad to hear it and before too long we were saying our goodbyes and running off in different directions. It took me a couple more weeks but I paid the entry fee and got myself into a more serious training regime. Once I was comfortable running 5k I started to believe it was possible and by the time we arrived to the 13th of May this year I was confident in covering the full 10 kilometres.

The morning of the run I saw her again, and there was no Alice in tow. "She didn't bottle it, surely?"

"Oh she bottled it. She barely lasted a month." Lizzie looked like a seasoned runner. She had one of those hydration packs strapped to her upper body, a colourful and clearly expensive pair of professional running shoes and a pack of energy gels packed into her pockets. On the other side of the conversation was a guy with no water bottle at all who was hoping to survive on the water stations that were set up every couple of kilometres.

"I was going to say she should be ashamed of herself but she probably didn't realise her mum was Kipchoge."

"Is he the marathon guy?"

"That's the one."

"Do you really not have any of these?" she asked me, pulling a gel out of her pocket and holding it up to show me.

"I don't really know what they are. Or what they do." I couldn't have sounded more prepared. "Could I steal one?"

"Take a couple." she said, handing them over. "You need to tell me if they make a difference because I can't even tell if they help but I bought 25 boxes and I need to use them."

"You're addicted." I joked with her. The conversation was smooth. I was never really this talkative when I was dating her daughter but if the dry years had been a drain on my confidence in the dating scene, the same couldn't be said about my social skills. I had really come out of my shell and the shyness that once gripped me was no longer there. "I can run with you if you want. Take Alice's spot."

"Don't be so silly." she said firmly. "You train so hard to challenge yourself and see what sort of time you can accomplish. You're not going to run at the back with me."

"You might be ahead of me for all we both know." I was probably reaching a little, and she assured me of that.

"Adam, I am 50 years old. Let's be realistic. Run your best race and I will catch you at the finishing line."

She reminded me to take my gel before the race started and then another if I was still going after about 40 minutes. We walked to the starting line together and I started to pull away from her within a few minutes. I turned back to check on her once but she just waved me off. Despite some late trouble with my right calf I made it home in good time. I waited at the finish line for a while but didn't catch her crossing and at this point in time I didn't have her number so when the late stragglers crossed the line I had to call it a day. With no trains back home for another hour I visited a local pub for a celebratory pint, medal around my neck.

As I waited to be served, there was a nudge in my back and a familiar voice. "There's no way you only just got here." I turned to see her, still red in the face from the cool air and hard labour, but the sweat had mostly dissipated.

"I was waiting at the line for you." I said, still a little surprised to find her there but happy enough once a cold pint was in my grasp.

"I must have snuck past you." she said, clad in a medal of her own. "What time did you get?"

"48:45 I think it was. It was something like 175th place. Some of those freaks were home in around 35 minutes. How'd you do?"

"1 hour 11 minutes 37 seconds. About mid table for my age group and gender. 6 minutes better than last year too." She raised her glass and we clinked them together.

"Very impressive. I think we both did pretty well." She was happy to agree and we spent another half an hour chatting among some of her running friends, to whom she introduced me as her daughter's favourite ex-boyfriend. I had literally zero competition in that ranking but it was still a relief to take first place.

When it was time to catch my train she handed me a leaflet with all the runs in the local area over the spring and summer and insisted I sign up for some more. I promised I would and then headed out and I wouldn't see her again for another month.

This was the night things began to change. For her? Maybe not. But for me, without a shadow of a doubt. I was out with some friends after a football match and we found ourselves crawling through a few of the local pubs. In our final stop I ran into her again and she looked absolutely stunning. She was always a pretty lady, but I suppose there was a disconnect because of my prior relationship with her daughter. When I saw her in that bar that night I saw her just like her daughters, completely and utterly gorgeous.

Obviously it was the clothing that gripped me, but it only helped me notice what I already knew about her. The skirt was so short. I'd never seen her in anything like that before. It was black with gold markings, tight to her figure and hugging her thighs until about halfway to her knees. Black tights covered her legs, and her heels added a few inches to her height. A red sweater on top was just as tight to her form. She always wore her dark red hair with a fringe and that night she had it down to her shoulders. It looked like she'd had a cut since I last saw her.

I first bumped into her as she left the toilets and I made my way towards them. She grabbed my attention and told me to come and say hello outside when I was finished. When I got to her I found her in a booth alone, a couple of empty glasses on the table. "Is someone here?" I asked, climbing in opposite when she shook her head.

"No, no. He's gone now. Why didn't I see you at the park 5k last week?"

I sunk into the bench. "You're calling me out already? I was hungover. I signed up and everything. I would have told you but I had no way to contact you."

"That's not good enough. I expected to see you there." She was smiling all the way through, unable to really keep up her mock annoyance at my failure. "There's a coastal run next weekend. You should do that instead."

"I'm signed up for that too. I'm going to be there. You have my word." She smiled again as I promised my appearance and I made sure to mentally book in a night off the drinks the evening before. "Who was your drinks partner?"

"Eurgh." she moaned into her glass which was perched against her lower lip, and she quickly downed some as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. "I was on a date."

I grimaced a little, trying not to laugh and gritting my teeth together as she looked my way. "No good?"

"No good." Her frown wasn't too serious and it quickly became a laugh. "He was a nightmare. I shouldn't even be dating. So ridiculous."

"There's nothing ridiculous about it. You can do what you want." I had never talked to a widow about getting back into the dating scene and felt way out of my depth but the least I could do was offer the most basic of assurances.

"I don't think I want to do it. I've just got people in my ear all day chirping about giving it a try." Her tone wasn't particularly serious and her voice got higher as the sentence went on, and the two of us laughed when she finished.

"Well fuck those people." I said, perhaps a little too keen. I was a few pubs deep that evening. "Ignore them."

She blew out a gust of air, her lips vibrating as she did. "You're probably right. I mean sometimes I feel like I should give it a try but at the moment it's not just fun."

"Take your time. Maybe the day will come." Another surface level assurance but it was the best I could muster.

"Fucking Eleanor. That daughter of mine."

"She's annoying right?" I said, unable to stifle my laugh. She joined me soon after and we spent a few seconds rolling at our joke disdain for my ex-girlfriend. "She's just looking out for you."

"I know. I'm just happy with my running right now. And my doggies." Lizzie was staring at an empty drink and I couldn't help but offer her another round. She insisted I return to my friends but there was only one place I wanted to be. When I returned with a glass of red for her and another pint for myself, she pointed to the half full glass on the table between us. "You haven't even finished that one yet."

"No point making two trips." I assured her, before finally succumbing to my urge to tell her about where I had seen her the previous year. "I didn't know whether to bring this up but I actually saw you on one of those dating apps last December. I'm not going to lie I was tempted to swipe right as a joke but I didn't want Ellie to shout at me."

Lizzie's face dropped. "You didn't see that?"

"I definitely did."

"That is so embarrassing. I didn't make the profile by the way. The girls did that for me so everything written on it was them, not me." It took her a moment, but she finally found a smirk. "I had zero success with that as well. I have no idea about these apps and how they work and half the people who messaged me were using lingo I couldn't keep up with."

"I thought it was a good profile to be honest. The prompt answers were pretty funny but I didn't realise it was the girls at the time." I had actually screenshotted it at the time to show some friends, but chose not to show her in the moment.

"I don't think Ellie would have gotten mad. She can take a joke, you know?"

"I know. I know." I said with a chuckle. "I just think there's a difference between a joke and hinting at... you know." I couldn't finish the sentence and quickly retreated behind my glass as I took a big gulp of my pint.

Lizzie could only laugh. We hung out for another 20 minutes or so. She complained a little more about her date, the fact she was dating and the taste of the wine I got her. Admittedly, I forgot what she asked for when I got to the bar and just ordered the first red the bartender suggested. That's on me. When it was time for her to leave I walked out to see her off into her taxi but before it arrived she insisted I take her phone number. "You're not allowed to miss any more races, okay? But at least if you're going to be stupid and drink the night before you can let me know." Her eyes were a little glazed now, and she was swaying as she spoke. "I'll see you at the coastal run, yes?"

"Yes!" I confirmed and I had every intention of being there now. I agreed long before I realised how much I fancied her now but by the next morning I was buying myself a few gel packs to impress her with when I next saw her. I helped her into the taxi and she was soon on her way.

Before I could head back inside and reunite with my friends, a guy in the smoking area caught my attention. "Bruv, your mum is fit as fuck." I had to agree, leaving him a little startled.

**

It was such a weird crush to have. Because obviously I can't do anything with it but also because I didn't even want to do anything with it. She had explicitly told me the last time we hung out that she didn't want to be in the dating scene and no part of me intended to ignore that message from her. The idea of even flirting with her terrified me anyway, but I couldn't help but be excited at the prospect of hanging out with her. Even if I could just provide a new friend to spend some time with while she pursued an important new hobby of hers, then I could be of some service at least.

The following weekend we met at the coastal run. She was dripped out in all of her gear once again, and stretching when I arrived. It was warmer now as we hit the backend of june and she was wearing shorts. I couldn't help myself from catching a glimpse of her legs, but managed to compose myself before grabbing her attention. I waved my gel packs her way and she rose with a grin. "They're good right? Do they work? I literally don't know."

"I don't know. I think so. I've only used them a few times this week. I think they help but maybe its bollocks." It was the truth. I literally had no idea if they gave me more energy. Even to this day, still no idea. I still use them though.

"What's your 5k personal best?" she asked me and I had no answer for her. "Do you run with an app? Check that."

"It's probably just half the 10k time right? If I got 48 minutes last time I'll target 24."

"You need to get a proper app and take more notice of what you're doing, not because you aren't doing fine without it but because it makes me feel bad that someone who is half-arsing it is doing so much better than me." She pushed a water bottle into my hands as she finished. "Drink that too."

I smiled into the bottle as I sunk half of its contents. "Sorry. I'll take it more seriously. You have to train me."

"Maybe I will." she said, before leading me towards the start line as I finished a few stretches of my own. "Ellie is waiting for us at the finish line by the way." She turned to me as she said it, smirking.

"I might run in the other direction."

"You'll be fine. I told her you're my best friend now."

Not long after we were on our way and like the last time I pushed ahead. When I crossed the line I saw Ellie and wished I had stuck with her mum this time around. I made my way over and gave her a quick sweaty hug. "How you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm good." Her smile was wide and genuine. "You look so good. Oh my God. Mum said you were working really hard and you did the 10k last month."

"Yeah, well, you know. I gave it a go. It was good fun and now she's making me do some more." I never felt like it was awkward between us, even when we went a long time without seeing each other. "You not thought about giving it a go?"

"Oh no." Ellie replied. "It's mum's thing and she loves it and..." There was a hesitation. I stared at her, unsure what it could possibly be but when she looked down I saw her hand on her stomach, guarding what looked like a new bump.

"Oh shit!" I said, shook by the reveal of my former love being pregnant. "That's amazing. I'm really happy for you."