Unplanned Pace Workout

This morning I set out to do the 3-mile hilly route on the roads near my house. Just as I was finishing the first mile, which ends up a long but somewhat gradual hill, I saw my neighbor - the "real runner" - coming down her driveway about to start her run. As soon as she saw me, she said, "Do you want to run together?" I started telling her I'm very slow and didn't want to slow her down, but she just said, "Well, let's try it, and we can always split up." So I proceeded to do the last 2 miles of my run with her. While I'm sure it was a slow run for her, it was a significantly faster pace than I usually have on that route. Last week I did the same route at a 12:53 pace, and this morning, including a slow first mile, my average pace was 11:38, including some pretty challenging hills! I figure that, while I wouldn't want to do it every day, a run like that is good prep for the Boilermaker, which has quite the hilly first half.
And I must say, it was fun to have someone to chat with, and made the run go by even faster. I don't live close enough to a running club to do scheduled group runs. There were a couple of times going up hills that I was feeling quite winded, but she would be in the middle of telling me a story, and I didn't want to be rude and drop off, so I stuck with it! She has run the Boilermaker several times, so was able to fill me in on some things about that, too - she said it's pretty crowded, but the support along the way from spectators is great, and the second half of the race feels really good after lots of climbs in the first half.
So overall, running with her was a good experience! It also inspired me more about losing weight - I realized that if I had strapped a 25-lb. backpack on her back, she might have been having the same difficulty on the hills that I was. I won't ever have the type of runner's body that she does, but I know from experience that it certainly is easier to run with a little less extra weight on board!