Never Pull a Fast One on McKeown

If there are hardier bucks out there than McKeown, especially when it comes to pushing himself and others, then I'll stay clear of them! We had a nice weekend up in the Wee County - despite the down side which I won't mention here (except to say that we are all praying for the best, and believing that we'll get just that).
On Saturday, Benny, Teresa, Enda and I went for a bit of a run around Poolbrock. The route consisted of a 1.5 mile loop starting at Benny's house (which includes a stiff incline) followed by a mile stretch of clear, straight road, and finishing with the same loop again! All done - 5 miles.
The first loop was completed with good banter to boot when Benny and Teresa called it a day - not a bad start back to training for those two, while McKeown and I carried on down the long, clear stretch - with conversation of Munster and Connaught rugby, and an 8min mile pace, I reckon. Of course the man is a hundred times fitter than I am so he did me the courtesy of sticking with me until we came to the turn and then, in the blink of an eye he was gone - shot up the road like a bullet.
If truth be told, I never told the man that I was going to do the loop the second time, so he was stretched and back in Benny's house when somebody noticed me going past to do the loop for the second time! However, you never pull a fast one on McKeown...
After exerting myself to the full on the back hill that leads to Stabannon Church, I could hear the gravelly noise behind, which was my first indication that Enda was on my tail! Of course he caught up and pushed the pace to well below 8min/mile for the last mile or so... which nearly killed me, but I stuck with it and was glad to get home!
A good day's work!
A picture of Enda pushing the pace during the Tuam 8k in January.