Medal monday. I’ve got a nice one to look back at, as this medal is a reminder of the two personal bests I ran this weekend at the NK Cross Trail run. I guess that’s the fun of short races; to be able to run a bit faster than usual.
See, I never run short races anymore. Short in this case is 15 kilometres. Or to be precise 17,43k as the race was a bit longer than expected. But still, it’s short for me. I mean I run that in training, but all the races I’ve done this year have been 25 kilometres or more and eight out of the ten were a marathon or longer.
Struggling with 15 kilometres
Funny thing, in my first running life, I thought 15 kilometres was really far. I remember always struggling with that distance. Then again, looking back I had no clue what I was doing in those days. If I was running 5 kilometres I tried to run 4 minutes per kilometre. If I was running 10 kilometres, I tried to run 4 minutes/kilometre, and if I ran 15 I did the same. Somehow I only succeeded on the 5. Luckily with the marathon I was a bit more smart.
Now-a-days I’m happy to run slow. Personal bests are not about running faster, they are about running a longer distance. The record now stands at 73.73 kilometres; the Auge um Auge in Bonn. Next year I hope to break that.
Fast-ish
But, but, but … it was fun to run fast last Saturday. Fast for me. And fast for where I am at this moment and that’s not focussing on fast. That’s focussing on distance.
To be fair I had no idea what my personal bests on the 15 kilometres or on the 10 English Miles were before this weekend. Those of my second running life, I’m talking about. Those of my first running life I can’t remember. Somewhere around 1 hour and 4 minutes or something on the 15. The 10 English Miles? No idea.
Split times
Those of my second running life are also not records I set when I focussed on them. To be fair, last Saturday was the first 15 kilometres race I signed up for. A trail race of course. I don’t do roads. So the personal bests I beat were just split times. But still, they count in my book. Or my excel sheet logbook and Strava, because that’s where I keep them.
For the curious among you, I ran 1:15:34 on the 15 kilometres, and 1:21:26 on the 10 English miles. I don’t think Kelvin Kiptum or Kilian Jornet will get worried about these times, but for me they are fun. My goal last Saturday was to test my legs. Are they good again, after the Auge um Auge? Good enough to start preparing for the Houffa Trail? With two personal bests, I guess that’s a yes.
Keep on running.
PS: the picture is of Sara, who run the 5 kilometres last Saturday as I was ‘going to fast’ to take a picture of myself. 🙂
