I Completed my First 10 Mile Run

Of course you already knew that if you read my Personal Running Log post below, but I assume that no one else reads those and I post them mostly for my own reference. I’m not sure how that is different than any of the other posts here but there you have it. My training plan called for a 10 mile run and I’ve been doing my long runs at roughly a 10 min/mile pace. I finished this one in 1hr 43min and I was pretty tired at the end of it but it felt good to have run the full 10 miles.

At about mile 8 I was starting to really labor, when some young kid (probably 16 or 17 years old) overtook me. He had his hat on backwards, his shirt off, and probably less total body fat than I have in one leg. He was moving swiftly and gracefully, or I was just plodding along, probably both. It was fantastic.

Just then, the song I was listening to ended and ‘Til I Collapse by Eminem came on. It’s one of my power songs. All of a sudden my legs didn’t feel as tired, my lungs were filled with air, and I started reeling him back in. Now, I’d love to be able to describe how I caught up to this young kid, but my renewed surge lasted all of 15 strides. Cooler heads prevailed, or perhaps it was just fatigue that prevailed. I’d already gone 8 miles and I had to keep telling myself that today’s workout was about endurance, not speed. If I wanted to last for 2 more miles I was going to have to keep a measured pace. (Incidentally, a ‘measured pace’ is just something slow people say).

So I kept putting one foot in front of the other, and I kept on at my ‘measured pace’. About a half a mile down the path I came around a blind corner and there’s young Hasty McFleetfoot standing still with his head over his knees, catching his breath. He’s turned around on the trail and is on his way back. He looks up and sees me, and instantly he’s running again. Vindicated!

If there’s one thing that writing this blog has taught me it’s that apparently I have vanity issues when I’m running. Who knew?