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When Loles sancho invited me to write this post I thought "What am I going to write with how slow and bad I am?" and I said half jokingly “Unless the followers of 42K Running want to hear the adventures of a slow runner in which the biggest challenge is to finish a 10k race ”… and that's how the idea of what you are going to read here came up.
What is a Slow Runner?
A Slow Runner is one who:
- It goes at the very end, when he is in a club running. He makes an effort, he trains like everyone else but he doesn't just go faster.
- Never or seldom has it dropped below 6 min / km. When he does, he feels so happy that he seems to have arrived first and has probably been in the slowest 5%.
- His greatest aspiration (for now) is to finish a 10k below 1h (I have not yet achieved it ... there is an almost but not yet).
- Because it costs so much to go faster, 10k still remain a challenge and the next challenge, an average, seems very far away.
Because of these 4 points, it is easy to detect a #slowrunner. There are some frustrations in being a slow runner but I'll start with the good things, which far outweigh the bad.
Let's go to the beginning, I introduce myself:
Am Johana cavalcanti, professional of Marketing in a Hospitality Group, I am 38 years old and I have been I have signed up for running. Why? Well because she was fat and smoked like a damned to death that he had his best friend in tobacco. I think there are few people who smoked more than me. Now I weigh 9kg less, I quit smoking and started running immediately. When I started I believed that running more than 15 minutes in a row was impossible. I downloaded an application for “learn to run"Of these that make you a Training plan to run 5k in 12 weeks. The first day I only had to run 60 seconds straight and then another 90 seconds walking and I confess that I was drowning in the second 50 but I kept going and got my first challenge, running 5k. After that I have improved, but very little. Back then I was running at a pace of 7.20min/km now I run 6.20min/km on good days. I went below 6 one day, before Christmas, but that was the only time and although I keep trying, it doesn't seem like it will happen again very soon.
This has been my beginning.
And you can askwhy do you run with how bad you do it? Well the answer is simple, I love it. And the why begins:
- It keeps me in very good physical shape. I don't think I've ever been better and I'm on my way to 40.
- I breathe better
- Although it may not seem like it, it makes me try to improve day after day and when I achieve something that challenges me, it fills me with pride
- I feel free. It's something I do by myself, I can do it by myself and I don't need much
- It allows me (I force myself) to go out after a day locked in the office
- It is a moment with myself, where I clarify my ideas (and generate ideas)
- You meet interesting, healthy and full of life people.
- May l wear my shoes and run wherever I wantNo matter where in the world you are. My sneakers always have a space in the suitcase.
Sure there are many more advantages but I don't want to bore you. Yes, I am bad, slow and usually I arrive last, but I like it a lot and I have a good time.
Now the cons:
1 - Injuries… I think my fragile little body as #slowrunner is not made for this sport and when it is not one thing, it is another. I have just been stopped for more than two months due to plantar fasciitis and now I am struggling to adapt to insoles.
2 - The cost. No, it is not cheap as many want to sell. You need good shoes, technical clothing, physio, insoles ...
But the biggest disadvantage and one that often discourages us from continuing is that, ONLY ANOTHER SLOW RUNNER UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS TO BE A SLOW RUNNER.
It is common to hear from a normal runner:
- "Don't worry, if you go at 6min / km you can" and you think "ostia, but if 6 for me is the ostia fast.
- “If going up the hill to the Castle is super easy” and you think “for you, man, you don't have my little legs, my little lung or my little heart. A slope kills me...
- “I don't understand how after so much time you don't go faster” and you think “well neither do I and what do you want me to do?
- "That on Saturday we go on a trail" and you say "Well, I happen that as I go last, I get lost" ... and they tell you "come on, let's go, it will be fun ..." and you think "for you, you won't get lost ... like I've already gotten lost 3 times, I'm not going anymore ... "
- "In three months you can do an average" ... and you think: Neither in 3 nor in 6 ... if I still die to finish 10k, how much do I have to train to do 21k?
The truth is that these things make you feel bad ... You think it's not worth getting together with the Normal Runner/Fast Runner because they don't understand how hard these 10km they do on a normal training day are for you, chatting and jogging faster than you on a race day ... but after 10min you understand why they can't understand you and you keep going these two times to the week with these people so wonderfully nice and healthy and that even though you are the worst and they don't understand you, they keep treating you like one of them and you go on and come back and miss when you're injured and can't go.
After a long time being just two #slowrunners, where Pili and I, me and Pili, supported each other, we now have a small group within the club. running of which I am a member. And surely many of the girls who are now slowrunners will improve and go to the next level, while I will stay there, trying, without much success, but having a good time.
Well this is my story. I'm sure there are many like me out there. But I think many don't continue because they switch to another sport or join the GYM because they don't feel understood... but girls, we are more than we think, we must not give up.
I leave you a collection of #gansotimes, Another hashtag that you can follow from my adventures of #slowrunner and that is already a ritual 😀
14 comments on "Adventures of a Slow Runner"
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Hello beautiful slowrunner
I quit smoking at 41, started running at 42, lost 16kg, and lost myself several times.
To quit smoking I was pushed by the environment in races where I participated as a volunteer, to start running it waslimecared for by the people he was meeting, just like caring for thelimentation and lose weight. Among these people I met, you, on September 13.
I understand what you write. Trust, as I do, in who you want and help. And filters out the negative.
Believe in yourself, and run having fun.
I read this once and I liked it: I don't run to add days to my life, but to add life to my days.
He nails it, doesn't he?
Cheer up!
I'm crazy about you…. Your effort, your integrity, your persistence…. You are special my favorite runner
Joana a great Post !!!
You identify us all a little in the beginning and best of all, it is told from affection, humility and the best sense of humor.
Great !!
Johana a great Post !!!
You identify us all a little in the beginning and best of all, it is told from affection, humility and the best sense of humor.
Great !!
I feel so identified!! great post!! Although I run more and more and usually go below the average of 6 km, I see the future as slow total!! I considered doing a half marathon, in fact it is November, but I see it as crude. At the moment with my training and my 10k races I am happy!! If you are interested, I have a blog luciapascual.com where I tell my experience in the running, and the objectives that I am achieving... Greetings!!
In my first 5k race, at 200m the ambulance hit my ass, and I thought: eli, leave it, it's not worth it...
But I had prepared a lot, so I continued, and by the time I got to km 3 (where the descent began), the ambulance stood next to me and I said to myself: no way are you going to pass me now!!! !!!!!! So I kept running….. and I arrived!!!!! It took me 37 min.
Two years later, and many courses later, I managed to reach 35!!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!
I am very happy to know that there are more people like me, that we do not pass level 1 or that they kill us!!
hahahahahaha I just like you…. Let's see if I can reach 35 in a 5k
hahahahaha well if you consider yourself a slow-runner, I must be an ultra-slow-runner hahahahaha
I can't get down from 42 for the 5k, at the moment my goal is to get down from 35 in a 5k, previously I have the goal of finishing them in one go and with dignity... Sometimes I think I'll never get it... and it may be so. But I insist. I already did it for a while, so sooner or later I'll get it again.
Do not stop writing. I am very happy to find people like me!
go slowrunners!!!!!
It's Me! run at 6 you say? Not even in the tests of a thousand! But I'm still there, how fast I won't be but the benefits of running are the same
You touched me Joha. I suppose that now if you've dropped below 6, but if you ever come to Barcelona, let's hang out together for a while.
I've been about 3 months, after 10 years inactive. I'm at 7min/km, trying to get down to 6:30. I do it very progressively since I was also a bit overweight, although it wasn't noticeable.
My best 500m sprint time is 5:10… xD
Hello, you are not a #slowrunner, you are an athlete, you train, practice, compete, get injured, share and live a sport. We are not all the same, the tables, the sizes, the races, even the shirts are designed for “elite” bodies. We are normal people who fulfill our effort, suffer, enjoy and fight. This Saturday I got 10k in 1:07 with my training partner. Two weeks ago we managed to do a 12k race. We have set ourselves the goal of doing a popular 16k race in a month. We have set the goal, the coach supports us and believes it is possible and we are going to continue training whatever it takes to see if we can do it. Small, achievable goals that motivate us to reach them. Do not hesitate, you will arrive.
Hello. I just found out about that name….slow runner. I think one is happy runner. I tell you my experience. I am 50. But in my adolescence and youth I was a medium distance runner and fondiata with good marks. An injury took me away from the competitions. Until a couple of years ago, due to cardiac issues, my cardiologist literally ordered me to do aerobic exercises. I came back…and discovered another facet….running without a watch that marks laps….or with a training plan…etc. I only come back from work 4 times a week (10k) enjoying my sensations, without thinking about brands or competitions or anything. I advised a former youth companion who competes in veterans that he ride once a month without his cardiometer or anything…he told me that it was something incredible….that he had forgotten why he fell in love with this sport…perhaps that is not how we all started ? Enjoy people…running is beautiful!!
Andrés, thank you very much for your comment, indeed, that is how we all started! health & kilometers
I fully identify with Johana and all those who have commented on this publication. I'm 50 and I've always liked racing, but I haven't been consistent throughout my life. However, the running bug woke up again a few months ago, and I'm already training. At the moment I do my training sessions that range from 4km to 8km at a pace between 6:20 and 6:55, which makes me without a doubt a member of the slow runners club :-). I think I can improve, since I have a problem in the heel of one foot and that hinders my pace, but whether or not I manage to improve my "marks", the feeling of running, whatever the pace, is the best reward I have. This activity can provide me. Oh… I'm also a member of another club that I could call "bad Bodyboarders" or "eternal beginner Bodyboarders", but that's another story. However, the reason is the same as the running: I do it for the incomparable satisfaction it gives me. I have the dream of running a 42k within 1 or 2 years. In reality, that dream is not new, I have had it since I was 10 years old, but just a few months ago I have been putting more effort into it. I'm not looking for brands, I'm looking for getting there.