I don't fancy myself a very fast runner. In fact, I think of myself as quite slow. When I first started running, I could barely finish a full mile, let alone do it in 14 or 15 minutes. When I was on the cross country team in middle school, I was the slowest runner. After I got injured at my first meet of the season, I didn't run again until college. In college when I decided to join the basketball team, I had to start doing morning runs with the team as well as sprint training during practice and I again was the slowest. Slow has always a defining feature of who I am. I eat slow. I usually walk pretty slow. I talk slower when I'm comfortable and relaxed. I drive slow. I take forever to pick out my clothes for the day. I take a lot of time when making decisions. I am a slow shopper. I write slowly (though still messily). So running naturally fits in with these other decreased-speed activities. That is until recently.
I don't wear a GPS watch when I run anymore but when I used to, it confirmed my suspicions: I was a slow runner too. Even as I ran more and more, I would usually clock in at around 12 minute/miles. The lowest I got down to before my first 1/2 marathon was 11:30 minutes per mile. Now 2+ years later I am running 8:38 mins/mile - 8:50 mins/mile in races. Granted these have been in shorter distance races, but I have also brought down my time (or PR'ed) in all of my recent race endeavors. Needless to say, when I woke up on Sunday morning for my St. Patrick's Day 8K race, I was not feeling like it'd be a fast day. This was thanks to a long long Saturday run, an evening out with some friends, and day-light savings time.
The day before the race, Saturday, I did a long run with Alexa and a friend of hers. I had originally planned to run with them for ~4 miles and then turn around and come back, totalling my day at around 8 miles. But, as usually happens on runs with other people, I really enjoyed the back and forth banter we all had going and when I got to 3 and then 4 miles, I figured, 'Hell, why not? I can keep going.' By the time we hit mile 5, we were turning around anyway (Haines Point) so I decided to stick with my pack. While I am sure I was the slowest of the three, I was grateful that they put up with my complaining and stayed at around my pace. While we crossed up behind East Potomac Park and the Jefferson Memorial, I was overjoyed to see tons of people outside playing baseball, soccer or just flying kites. I love when I see people outdoors playing games or just hanging out, instead of inside hooked to all of their electronics.
Then almost as quickly as it began, our run was ending. We said goodbye to Alexa's friend who headed south to Alexandria as we trudged up through Arlington. I decided to stop at 10 miles, which conveniently was right next to my favorite memorial (see the last post), and walk the last mile back up to where I was parked. Though I knew I could have kept on running, I felt like it'd be best to let my legs catch a small break before the next day's race. The rest of the day was spent eating, getting my stuff for the race (bibs and T-shirts), shopping for a new pair of jeans, nursing a sore knee, and spending some time with my friends. And staying up a tad later than I should have. I got home at midnight and couldn't fall asleep till 1 AM. Fail. The next morning I woke up at 5:30 AM, wide awake and ready to go, except that I realized that the night before I set the clocks forward an hour (day light savings time). So for my body it was 4:30 AM and I had only got about 3.5 hours of sleep. Feeling cranky and frustrated, I made/ate a small breakfast, text my boyfriend, and drove to Alexa's. When we got to the race start, we decided to warm up for about 10 minutes, which helped a lot, but made me realize that my knee was really bothering me from the day before. I knew it'd make for a slower run, so I announced that I'd be running like this was a training run, nothing fancy today. We lined up between the 9min/mile and 10min/mile pace area and waited. And waited, and waited, and waited.
The race was slated to start at 9 AM, but the starting gun didn't officially go off until 9:07. Then finally we started moving forward. I wished Alexa good luck and cranked up my iPod. I chose to listen to one of my boyfriend's Japanese mixes and settled into my gait. For the first mile, I just focused on moving forward while the sun glinted directly into my eyes. I was feeling sleepy and cranky and not at all like running, but I figured I'd feel like it was worth it later so I kept moving. Going into mile 2, you go uphill. Not a huge one, but it was big enough to annoy me. Now already feeling a bit high strung and irritated, let's add on this: I'm not a super competitive person, but when I'm running I get these "twitches" where I feel like I NEED (for no reason really) to get in front of this person or that person. As I charged up the hill, I picked off runners left and right memorizing the backs of their T-shirts so I'd know if they started to edge in front of me again. On the way back down I pushed my legs to take me faster as I zipped by a bunch more people. There is always a sudden *zing* of joy when you pass someone you've been trying to get around, it's silly but it's there. Heading onto a road which crossed between the Capitol building and Washington monument, I tried to let the competitive edge cool down because I knew the course was entering a long flat stretch where I'd almost certainly slow down again and all those folks I passed before would now get their revenge by passing me.
Seeing the clock at the 5K mark felt both good and bad. It was good because I knew I was close to being done with the race, but bad because the 5K clock said I ran the 3.1 miles in 32 minutes. I was felling pretty discouraged by that because I felt I'd been running pretty hard and it was so far off my recent 5K time. But I gulped down some water from my Camelpak (and my pride) and pushed on. By the last mile, I was exhausted and my knee was throbbing. I had no more interest in running and seeing the balloons at the finish line made my day. When I crossed the line, the clock read 49 minutes. I shrugged and figured that while it wasn't my best run ever, at least I got a good workout in for the day. I then wandered around to find water, a banana, and Alexa.
After the 8K, which turned out to be 5+ miles, Alexa and I talked about how we did. We spent the better part of 30 minutes after the race trying to figure out what exactly our times were according to the race start and when we started running. I figured I was only about a minute off from the time clock, so my clock time of 49 minutes seemed okay to me. I gave up thinking and getting my hopes up of a good 5 mile time and just let it go. Later that day Alexa told me to take a look my 8K race time. When I read the results I was floored, I hit the 5K mark only 1 minute slower than my 5K PR, my average pace per mile was 8:50, and I finished in 43 minutes. Forty three minutes. That's the fastest I've ever run a set of 5 miles and I was able to pull it off after a long ass run the day before, a sharp nagging pain in my knee, and having had only 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. I was ecstatic! So the moral of this story is if you're worn down, slightly injured, and sleep deprived you run a better race. No, just kidding (seriously, I was kidding, try not to run a race in those conditions).
So naturally over time things change. And as I ran and trained more, I slowly (no pun intended) but surely decreased my speed for my race times. Over my 4-5 years of being a runner, it turns out I have, indeed, become faster. Here is a brief break down of my races and times:
Race History:
2008 Annual Whitman Walker Clinic AIDS 5k - 29 min
Long Island RexCorp 1/2 Marathon - 2 hrs:29 min
2009 Marine Corps Marathon - 5 hrs:06 min
Smiles Change Lives Turkey Trot 5K - 39 min
2010 National Breast Cancer 1/2 marathon - 3 hrs:26 min
Cherry Blossom 10 Miler - 1 hr:38 min
Columbia Marathon 1/2 Marathon - 2 hrs:11 min
2010 Marine Corps 1/2 Marathon - 2 hrs: 08 min
Babylon Dirty Sock 10K - 1 hr: 25 min
2011 Love the Run You're With 5K - 26 min
George Washington Birthday Classic 10K - 58 min
St. Patrick's Day 8K - 43 min
A few days ago I started building my 50K/marathon training program. To start at a base line I decided to use the fancy "race planner" gadget from the Runner's World site and then add in my own workouts. When you do this, it asks you to put in a recent race time. So I put in my recent 5K time. The plan the generator spit out was doable, right until the end - it had me slated to run a 3:45 marathon. That's only 5 minutes from a Boston qualifying time. Now that's awesome, but I know I'm not that good. So I put in my recent 10K time instead and brough it down just 1 minute (57mins) becasue I felt like 56-57 minutes is a more accurate respresentation of my speed capabilites in the 10K. This time I got this as my expected finish time -> 3:52. That's 3 hours and 52 minutes. If I finish in under 5 hours I will be happy, but if I come anywhere close to under 4 hours... I don't even know. Being able to run that fast has never even crossed my mind as a possibility.
I'm going to end by saying that my telling you about my running trials with being a slow runner and getting faster should be good proof to Everyone who thinks they'll never be able to run a fast 5K or gets discouraged by the fact that they feel like run slower than (what feels like) everyone else or in any way doubts their abilities to be athletic, that you can in fact do ANYTHING you put your mind to. You are stronger than you think. You are better than you give yourself credit for (even just for trying). You are completely capable. Have a little more faith in yourself because your brain is the best muscle you got.
Have a great and activity-filled day!
*Note: I am thinking about offering my services (for free for now) as a race coach. I am working on becoming a Road Runner's Club of America (RRAC) certified coach and know that helping people live their dream of getting fit and learning to love running is very much something I want to do with my life. But beware that I will make you work for it, it won't always be easy, but it will be worth it in the long run. :) So if you're interested in having a coach of sorts help you become a runner, I'd love to be that person. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at My New Running-Related Stuff Email Address - RunnerGirl1121, if you're interested.
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