A pleasant surprise

I woke up this morning to wind, rain, a flooded garden, a weather forecast that wasn't going to get any better as the day went on, and a 4 mile run that needed to be done.  I maybe could have faced running in the wind and rain, but wading through the ankle-deep puddles that I knew would be on my route didn't appeal.  I headed off to the gym.

The post-Christmas crush was still in evidence (including a woman trying to use the rowing machine whilst clutching a Starbucks grande coffee in one hand).  There was only one treadmill left by the time that I got there, and it was sandwiched between two guys who were running at speeds that had their sweat flinging itself onto the neighbouring treadmills.  They say that one needs to make sacrifices to train for a marathon, so I ignored the droplets winging their way towards me and started my run.  

The treadmills work in kilometres, my head works in miles, and my memory is appalling.  So when I had to choose a speed for what I intended to be a slowish steady run, I chose what I thought was the speed from my treadmill run last week.  I couldn't really remember, but I took my best guess.  Then I turned off the display because I get too bored watching how slowly the kilometres creep past; instead, I keep a general eye on the wall clock and turn the display back on towards the end of the run.

I noticed that I was struggling a bit more than usual for the first five minutes or so but then my breathing settled into a relaxed rhythm, my legs felt strong, and I had to resist the urge to increase my speed.  When I finally turned the display back on, there was a bit less than 1km to go.  I couldn't figure out, though, why the time was less than I had expected it to be.  I put it down to poor maths on my part, finished the run, and left.

When I got home, I entered the distance and time into my MapMyRun log, which calculated that I had been running a 10:12 mile.  Really???  After my public tantrum yesterday about how I might as well GIVE UP NOW because I JUST CAN'T DO IT???  Oops.  How embarrassing.

Research update:  Runner's World recently did a survey of readers and asked what motivated them to run.  Top answer?  'Being able to eat more.'  Perhaps I'm more of a runner than I thought!