With today's running of the auspicious 122nd Boston Marathon, you may be thinking of the elite men runners who average a blazing sub-4:40 minute per mile for 26.2 miles and the elite women who average 5:15 per mile.

Or, you may be thinking about yourself, your friend or family member who may be running and trying to achieve your or their personal bests. 

Tax refund? What are you going to do with it?

While the marathon is a personal challenge of endurance, sometimes the pace you run is not all that matters. Sometimes, slowing down and taking in all that is around you can be more satisfying.

I know when I train I don't feel complete unless I achieve a certain pace level. This past week, however, I was asked to run with a friend of mine who says he has two speeds: slow and slower. Not wanting waste a training day and not wanting to offend my friend who I have known since childhood I decided to take him up on his offer with the hopes he was just joking about his times. After all, he was captain of our high school cross country and track teams.

He wasn't kidding. He was pretty slow, but it was a beautiful morning and we were on a spectacular running path. And our time together taught me something about running that I forgot. This preoccupation with pace, I realize now, didn’t leave much room for other thoughts. It crowded out things like small talk, joking around—the stuff that I realize I was missing by running by myself all the time.

The slow run reminded me of something else, too—just how much of an escape running can be. Like many of us, we lead fairly hectic lives. It can be difficult to find time to really talk, communicate and relax.

Running is a way to enter this portal. It mutes the background noise and provides a literal change of scenery, almost instantly. Moments after you break into a run (or in our case, a jog), the stress and the chaos recede. And then it’s just me and my friend.

It was nice to reconnect with this friend. We had the ability to talk about the usual mundane stuff—kids’, where we may go on vacation — as well as heavier things like work and politics. We did it a pace that allowed us not to gasp for air. And while, I still enjoy a rigorous workout and the stress it may inflict on my body, the ability to slow down and not have to move too fast is a way of making me stay hungry for my next run and feel groovy again.