Distance: 4 miles
Time: 55:14
Pace: 13:46 per mile
Today, I decided I would allow myself to take it easy. I was tired, I haven't covered four miles in quite a long time, and I had to use the treadmill again. I was interested to learn that my pace was hardly any slower than it was when I was going half as far and trying to run quickly.
This reminded me of something I had nearly forgotten. My distance running career actually began in 1996.
In 8th grade, I wanted to join the track team. Well, I wanted to get the Bolton Middle School "All Sports Award," and I would not be deterred by the fact that I didn't actually play any of the sports involved (volleyball, basketball, and track). So, I joined the track team, which must have seemed hilarious to everyone who knew me. "Fast" is probably one of the few words that has NEVER been used to describe me.
I had previously acquired a pair of discus throwing shoes in a 99c bin at the Nike Employee Store, so naturally I chose to participate in this event. In fact, because Mom worked at Nike, my footwear for all three of these "all sports" was far superior to my skills in any of them. I can specifically remember the purple and green accents on my white volleyball shoes (the other girls on the B team were wearing cross trainers- losers), the velcro strap that came across my first edition Air Swoopes basketball shoes (no one else in middle school had the first Nike shoe named after a woman), and the Nike Air Max 95s (the most coveted- you remember them, I'm sure). I can assure you, Spike Lee, "It's gotta be the shoes" is a bold faced lie.
Anyhow, back to the track team. After choosing discus and the softball throw (an event I could legitimately compete in, having actually thrown a softball before), I had to determine in which "running" event I would participate. It seemed to me that I finished about halfway behind the winner in any event I tried. I was barely out of the blocks by the time the girls crossed the finish line in the 100m dash. I was probably coming into the straightaway when they finished the 200. I can specifically remember choosing to run the 1500m on the belief that I could be about a half lap behind the winner, and this was still a respectable finish. It helped that everyone else thought that was SUCH a LONG way to run (less than a mile), so the fact that I was willing to compete gave me some street cred (although not nearly as much street cred as the Nike Air Max 95s). Plus, points were given by size of participant, and since I must have been about 65 pounds at the time, I was the only girl in the smallest division. This meant that I could almost always earn first-place points simply by finishing the race.
I can also remember that my goal in the 1500 was usually to avoid coming in last. This involved running next to or slightly behind the slowest, fattest girl and then sprinting past her in about the last 100m. Then people would say things to you like, "Great finish!!" and they would be cheering really loud when you crossed the finish line, even though it had been a full 2 minutes since Ben Metcalf crossed the line to win. That was the other thing- because the race took so long, and had so few participants, they made us run it at the same time as the boys. To his credit, Ben Metcalf was always encouraging when he lapped me. In every single race. In a race that's not even a full four laps long.
So, I guess history should have warned me that today I'd be able to run mile 4 at the same slow speed I ran mile 1. This was probably true in the marathon, as well, where I was literally not yet halfway finished when they announced that someone had won the race.
All of this has made me realize that maybe I'd be better off trying to qualify in a 10k race instead of a 5k race. I've never really "excelled" at short distances... even with the coolest shoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment