The Running Thread -- 2022

[steph0808]

I can't remember the date of my first run either. I did a year of track in high school, regularly running a 2-mile loop after school each day, but I still didn't consider myself a runner, because I never did that elusive 5k that I always said I was going to run.

I ran on the treadmill when I went to the gym in college and for a few years afterward, but I mainly did strength training.

In January 2012, I finally decided to do that damn Couch to 5k program. I was in good shape, but failed at the program multiple times because I always did the run parts too fast for someone who didn't do a lot of cardio. I slowed down on the run parts, and voila! I finally was able to complete the program.

In 2012, I did a 10k in April, a 5k in June, a 7k in August, and two half marathons in October, leading up to the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2013 because it was the 20th anniversary and "I'm only ever going to do one marathon."

7 marathons later, here I am, training for Dopey in 2023.

 

[Bree]

ATTQOTD: My first “race” was in elementary school where we had to run a timed mile. I’m still mad I came in 2nd and that I lost to a boy. Hey, I was 8yo and boys were icky and I can be a bit competitive I ran cross country in Junior High and High School then off and on for years. It wasn’t too serious distance wise because it was hard with little kids and a husband that traveled weekly for work. Kids got more self sufficient so I ran a 5K in 2013. Ran my first 10K in 2015, half marathon in 2017 and marathon in 2019. This year I will run my 5th and 6th marathons. I’m one of the older people here and I’ve never been a super fast runner, but it’s amazing to see the progress I’ve made over the last few years. I saw this on Instagram yesterday. Funny how you sometimes stumble across a message when you need it the most. I was having a pity party because my training is not where I planned to be at this time last year.

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

ATTQOTD: My first run was in March 2017. DH and I had recently returned from our first adult-only trip to Disney and I was desperate for an excuse to do it again. Enter... RunDisney. DH was a bit skeptical until I told him that Darkwing Duck was sometimes on the race course.

We took our first run together and I don't remember how long or how far we ran but I remember being very thankful for my dog who insisted on stopping to pee every block!

 

[HangWithMerida]

ATTQOTD: I also don’t have any data from my early runs. I started C25k in early 2012 but got stuck at the 22-25 minute (Something like that) run point. Couldn’t break past it. So I did that almost 2.5 mile run a few days a week for about a year. Fell out of the habit. Didn’t pick running back up until I started C25k again in late 2017. I found a picture on my phone from the castaway cay 5k with my husband on a cruise over Christmas 2017. I remember it being really hot, running was hard and I had to walk some on the second loop. But we had a good time and I was proud of myself. That achievement was the beginning of my now almost 5 years of running.

 

[The Expert]

ATTQOTD: I had to do a bit of digging to find what app I had captured it on (answer: runkeeper), but I found my first run! Most of you know my story and how I signed up for the 2016 Princess 5K when I discovered it was happening on a trip we'd already booked. I'd never even considered running "for real" until I saw the real metal medals. I thought "well, how do I know I can't do this unless I try?"
Two weeks later back at home, here's a 45-year-old woman in cotton shorts doing run/walk intervals for 30 minutes up and down my street.




Edit to add my note from this log:

 

[Jillfo]

ATTQOTD: I started running sporadically in college and that was in the early/mid 1980s. Other than it being somewhere on or near the Michigan State campus, I recall no other details. And certainly don't have any data.

 

[MissLiss279]

ATTQOTD:
Besides running track in Jr. High (which I hated, because I always finished last running the mile!!), I started running sometime in the spring of 2014 - probably March-ish???
I had a friend who ran a half the fall before, and I may have tried running a couple times then, but like I’m sure a lot of people, I went out and ran as hard as I could, and then after about 20 yards, I was sucking air, and asking myself why am I doing this?? This is NO FUN!
Then in the spring I decided to try a couch to 5k app program, and the run/walk helped, but I still struggled to get through the longer running sections. I repeated a few weeks. I decided to run my first 5k with one of the run/walk options, and that worked. (I had never heard of Galloway at that point.) In the process of training for another 5k, I found an app called ‘Gipis’ (GPS, I think is how you pronounce it). It was an app that would tell you to ‘speed up’ or ‘slow down!’ And it kept telling me to slow down. This is how I found out I was trying to run too fast! Once I learned to slow down, I knew that I could do this, and running wasn’t that bad. That summer I signed up for my first half marathon training program. Now I have run 3 50k’s, 31 marathons, 26 half marathons, and I didn’t keep track of 5k’s and 10k’s - but those numbers are probably lower.

Sadly, I don’t have access to those apps anymore with the data, but it was fun to look through Athlinks with my past races. The earliest 5k I found was end of April 2014, but I know I ran one before that specific race,

 

[Jillfo]

Race Volunteer Report

I volunteered at the Western States Endurance Run this weekend helping runners navigate the American River crossing at mile 78. It was such a unique and terrific way to experience the race as a volunteer. I was in the river twice for about two hours each. I got to get up close with the race front runners and solid mid to late packers. Runners were amazed we stood in the water so long at a time (since it was shockingly cold when you’re first in it) and very appreciative. Its bottom is all big, slippery rocks and the depth varied from just below crotch level to about armpits on me. The river crossing is immediately after an aid station (two separate operations) so I got to see runners having good, bad and ugly experiences even when not in the water. The aid station is where Camille Herron hung out for about an hour trying to control nausea.



After my volunteer duties were done at 5:00 am (the mile 78 cutoff), I went to the finish line at Placer High School. The last runner with an official time came in four something minutes under 30 hours. The last finisher (no official time) came in a minute or two over. It was so cool seeing thousands of people on their feet cheering her in. Very representative of the running community.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

ATTQOTD: I started running my sophomore year of high school when I joined the cross-country team because I didn't want to play slowpitch softball. I needed a fall sport to replace it and cross-country sounded the easiest. This is pre-smartphone so I have no record of any of my runs from that time, but I was actually okay - I made the varsity squad on our admittedly fairly mediocre team that year (and never again lol - I wasn't very disciplined). I think my PR was somewhere in the 24-25 minute range.

Random things I remember from cross-country:

1. Because school started at like 7 a.m., we ran after school. School ended at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. on Wednesdays.) So that is when we ran. In Orlando. In August/September. It is honestly kind of amazing no one got heat stroke in my three years on the team.
2. Every year before the big regional meet at the end of the season, my coach hosted us for a spaghetti dinner at his house. He had a young kid, so there were books and toys and so on around, and one time we made him read us a story in the vein of "Everybody Poops" or "Walter the Farting Dog". We were teenagers. We thought it was hilarious.
3. The longest run we ever did was about 6 miles. For years after that, I didn't think I could run farther than 6 miles. In high school, that seemed so. incredibly. far. It's funny how running longer distances changes your perspective.

I didn't run much after high school - or exercise regularly at all - for a good chunk of years. Then at some point I discovered Fitness Blender and realized I could work out at home, got in better shape, and eventually started running again - and the rest is history, plus present and future.

 

[azrivest]

ATTQOTD: Great question!

I can't remember my first run either. I was always the chubby teen who hated any kind of cardio. My sports were volleyball and the like, which were more based on physical strength. My brother got into running when we were in uni and I remember thinking he was crazy. Like, who would go out running for an hour for no reason?!

DH and I ran in the summer before our wedding. Did I want to lose weight before the wedding? I don't remember. We would go out for 20-25 minutes run in 27C degree weather with our 120lb Newfoundland. She was dying of heat (If you know Newfs, you know) but would still manage to run faster than us

I really got into running after DD was born. This is when I consider my running journey to really begin. I got into those outdoor fitness classes with Baby Girl, and then on my own. After ~2 years of those, I decided to go a step further and start running. According to Garmin, my first official run was on June 19 2016, so over 6 years ago. I found the result of my first 5k in June 2017:

160

F

#38 / 50

00:35:48

Nice to see that this speed is now my EB pace.

Since then, I've run 5 5Ks, 4 10Ks, 2 15Ks, 4 HMs and omw to my first marathon.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

ATTQOTD: My first memorable run was in 10th grade in PE— we had to run a mile around the track. I puked when I was done. How embarrassing.

I was a competitive figure skater growing up (mostly synchro), and in 11th grade I was on a more “elite” team than I had ever been on. We had workouts that included running laps around the top of the rink. I remember I would walk when I got to the part where the coaches couldn’t see me I hated running. One time, though, we did some sort of sprint activity, and I was able to run really fast. The coaches told me I had been holding back on them.

In high school I also played ultimate frisbee most Wednesdays. At least in the summer. So that involved running.

In college I continued skating and running as a workout to supplement my skating. My co-ed fraternity held a 5k fundraiser every year, so I did couch to 5k to train for it. In my memory I completed one of those 5ks without walking at all, but I have no data available and no idea what my time would have been. Before one of those 5ks I jokingly posted a photo of Mexican food on Facebook the night before and said “carb loading” and a girl who was a serious runner posted some comment that made me think she didn’t get the joke. I also worked at a summer camp and would lead a “dash and splash” in the morning— we’d run down the camp road and back and then jump in the pool. I also played Quidditch my senior year.

The first race I have data for is the Detroit Turkey Trot 10K in 2012, my last semester of undergrad. I finished this the fall after my cross-country bike trip and I was in reasonably okay shape. I think I trained with a Couch to 10k program. I did it in 1:20:17 (12:55 average pace). I remember being very nervous before this race even though now a 10k doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. I still have a video on my phone of some friends who recorded me a hype message.

 

[jmasgat]

ATTQOTD: I'm not entirely sure when I began running. I may have done some random stuff for exercise (inasmuch as I bothered to exercise). So no data--and even after I started running it was a while before I had any sort of Garmin.

But I do remember the first training plan I followed. It was in 2008, and I had signed up for my first real race--the Minnie 15k (May racing at WDW--what was I thinking!) 15k is an odd distance, but I managed to find one for the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Fl. It was a "walk, then run" kind of plan, in that each week you built up your distance by walk/running it, but the next week you did the same distance solely running. It helped me get over the mental hurdle of never having run any kind of long distance.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

ATTQOTD: Ignoring junior high track and running as part of training for other sports in high school, my first run was somewhere mid-May 2004. I had signed up for the Peachtree Road Race with my brother and stumbled on a Hal Higdon novice 8-week training plan for the 10-K. I was dumb enough at the time with visions of my younger self still in my head to not even consider something like a couch to 5-K/10-K to start out with. The training plan called for 2.5 miles that first day and so I went out in the Georgia heat and did it, running hard the whole time. Needless to say I came back feeling terrible and within a few weeks had a nice case of runners knee (my first running injury!). Since I didn't really intend to continue running after the Peachtree, I didn't track my runs in anything and used my old fashioned Timex to track time (for what purpose I don't know since I wasn't logging them). Finished the Peachtree upright that year and promptly quit running. It wasn't until starting around the same time the following year for the 2005 Peachtree that I finally decided to find a new race after the Peachtree to keep me motivated and keep me running (and I still am).

 

[GreatLakes]

SAFD: I have also played sports and run around as long as I can remember so I'm going to skip that and go with four "first" runs as far as racing goes.

First run as part of race training. I'm not sure of the exact date but in January 2005 I signed up for the 5K on Gasparilla weekend. At some point that month I started by running 1 mile on a treadmill and in about 2 weeks got up to 3 miles and hated it. About a week before the race I tried a 3 mile outdoor run (this would have been around 1/31/2005) and loved it.

First actual race. Gasparilla 5k on 2/6/2005. It took me 30:39 and I was 2,504 overall. I have no GPS for this race but the moment I finished I knew I would be doing more.

First run with GPS: 5/22/2010 with my Forerunner 305. 5.42 miles in 37:16 (6:52 pace)

First race with GPS: sunburst 10K in South Bend on 6/5/2010. It starts downtown at the NCAA HOF and finishes on the field of Notre Dame Stadium.

 

[FFigawi]

First run with GPS: 5/22/2010 with my Forerunner 305. 5.42 miles in 37:16 (6:52 pace)

The first run I could find in my Garmin Connect history was in July 2007, also with a Forerunner 305.

 

[_shiny_side_up_]

ATTQOTD: It's really hard to pinpoint when my first "run" was because of the path to fitness I took. In January 2013 I weighed 335 lbs and decided "enough was enough". Something had to change, so I started counting calories and walking.

ATQOTD: Much like camaker, running becamse a path back to fitness for me. I weighed 320lbs for 20 years (gained in college and never lost it). Something finally snapped at age 40 and I got down to 200 over the next year. When it started creeping back on a year later i decided to start exercising. I went slowly - doing an interval job / walk thing for a mile or two around a local park. My first "real" run was a 5k in late February of 2017. After that I thought ... well, sure - let's do a 10k (Peachtree Road race in Atlanta) ... after that - how about the half marathon for thanksgiving?

 

[Herding_Cats]

For anyone that runs in NB1080s....the v11 is 20% off on Amazon/Zappos now so they're $120 instead of $150. Not surprising since the v12 is out. And on that note, can anyone comment on how much larger those are running? It (the 1080v12) was specifically noted as "these run large, consider sizing down" on all the websites.

 

[avondale]

The first run I could find in my Garmin Connect history was in July 2007, also with a Forerunner 305.

This all makes me think of a somewhat related question... what was your first fitness-tracking watch or other device?

I was thinking of this in relation to my first run when I posted about this yesterday. I believe at that time I had a Basis Peak watch. Does anyone remember that? In some ways, it was way before its time because it has a touch screen interface and automatically detected when you were doing certain activities like walking, running, and biking. But it had some issues and the company got bought out or something...I think they had a deal where you could mail back your device and they'd give you a $200 refund. I think I used that to buy my first Garmin, a FR 235.

Before the Basis Peak, I had a Body Media armband, one of those fitness tracking devices that you wore around your bicep. I had that for several years - I can track that by seeing it my hiking vacation photos. I think that was my first fitness-tracking device.

 

[Kerry1957]

My first documented race was in Peoria, IL; the Steamboat Days 4 mile in 1983 (yes, 39 years ago). I remember it for two reasons:

• Arturo Barrios had the course record. No surprise that he could do it, just that he would go to Peoria to run a race. If you are unfamiliar with him he was a powerhouse in the 1980s-90s. He held the world record in the 10K for four years and set three world records in one race in 1991: 1) 20K in 56:55, 2) first half marathon distance ever run in under 1 hour, and 3) longest run in one hour (21+ kms)
• There was a special Budweiser Light tent with free beer for those of us who signed up in the Clydesdale Class which was weighing over 100 kg,

Unfortunately, except for a couple of random 5Ks, I took about 20 years off from running between 1995 and 2015. I ran my first HM in 2015 at age 58 and my first marathon in 2018 at age 61.

 

[The Expert]

For anyone that runs in NB1080s....the v11 is 20% off on Amazon/Zappos now so they're $120 instead of $150. Not surprising since the v12 is out. And on that note, can anyone comment on how much larger those are running? It (the 1080v12) was specifically noted as "these run large, consider sizing down" on all the websites.

I run in NBs, though they are the FuelCell line. I size up half a size from my usual sneaker size, as opposed to a full size in Brooks or Asics. If that helps at all.