Run 6

So, I didn't run my Fleet Feet run. Let me get that news out of the way. There was a Saturday night involving college football, good friends, conversation, maybe a beer or two and I just didn't want to get up early to run on Sunday. I felt bad about it. In fact I felt pretty horrible Sunday and Monday. I think it had to do with the school year starting on Tuesday and not anything that was physically wrong. Anxiety is a bitch.

So, I ran last night (Tuesday). Arrived at the gym around 9:35pm and I decided I wanted to run for an hour straight. I actually wanted to run 5 miles, but after putting in 50 minutes or so, I knew I wanted to just run to 60 minutes to see what it felt like. Then at 60 minutes I wanted to run to the next quarter mile, so here's the data:

elapsed time: 61:38
distance: 5.25 miles
average speed: 5.11 mph
average pace: 11:44/mile

It was the first time in my life I'd ever run 60 straight minutes on a treadmill without stopping. I didn't know the machine would force me to slow down at 60 minutes and I'd have to keep increasing the speed to finish the last 1:38.

OK, here's my bone to pick with people today. People need to stop asking me how fast I run things (unless they are runner friends). I will never be fast. Fast is not my goal. Running 13.1 miles is my goal. Yes, it took me 5 and 1/2 hours to run a marathon, but I still ran the damn thing. How many other people know what it feels like to run for over 5 hours and what it does to your mind and body? So, when I was in 2nd grade we had to run the mile and my gym teacher put our finish times on a name tag to show everyone the rest of the day. I was humiliated. I was slow. It took me 11 or 12 minutes to finish and the fast kids wore those name tags like medals of glory and honor. I felt inadequate. I felt like a disappointment. And I was 7! So, I wasn't fast as a kid and I'm not fast now. I've spent too much of my life beating myself up for stuff, too much time feeling inadequate (this is an internal mental complication of mine I apply to many things) to worry about what a bunch of non runners think about my speed.

My favorite mantra lately from Kara Goucher in Runner's World: "Run the mile you're in."

I still need to work on my leg strength. That's the week's goal. Over and out.