Coach Mark was there giving us a pep talk. Again, he talked about the Kenyans, which always makes me snicker - I am about as un-Kenyan as you could get, even ignoring the fact that I might be one of the whitest women on the planet. But truthfully, listening to Mark evangelize about running is one of my happy places. It's his words that helped me find my identity after Max's birth. Even if he never remembers my name, he always addresses me as an athlete, for which I am eternally thankful. As much as I complain about standing in the cold to listen to him remind us to hydrate and wear layers, I truly enjoy it, and find it comforting and inspiring that someone so legendary in our local running community has made it his life's work to be a coach to athletes like me.
Amongst the sea of unfamiliar faces was another mom from Sami's daycare. We ended up running together and chatting the whole time, and I never even glanced at my watch. When I got home, I uploaded my run and found this:
What the WHAT?!!
I held a steady 10 min/mile pace while gabbing. Huh. How about that. I'll admit that my running partner was far less short of breath than me, and was probably holding herself back, but it was an altogether comfortable and pleasant run. And fast!
Maybe I need to reconsider the solitude thing.
The big picture is that for the first time ever, I can actually conceive of doing a 30 minute 5K, and not dying or vomiting from the effort. I still have another 20 seconds/mile to deal with, but I honestly think it's doable. I have three weeks until the Turkey Trot, and I doubt I'll be able to do it then, but it's always been a fast race for me. And the next opportunity will be the New Year's Day 5K, which has the advantages of being flat and at 11am.
A 10 min/mile pace has always been both a mental and physical barrier for me. And I almost didn't notice that I ran right through it.
2 comments:
Shaking it up a bit! I like that. You'll get there sooner than you think :) - Robine.
What an exciting milestone to hit! Congrats!
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