How To FEEL Fast (Even When You Really Arent)

A few months ago, when I was a little more on the running bandwagon, I did a 5-miler with a friend of mine. Though she is a fast runner, she had never really done distances, and it was the first time she was attempting to run for 5 miles. She did great the first 3, struggled the fourth, and then was really struggling for the fifth. Her pain and suffering made me feel more powerful. The fact that I finished that five miler and still felt like I could go longer, in addition to the fact that I had tried to encourage her to keep going ("you can do it!") made me feel like (for once in my life) I was the better runner.

From what I can tell, I experienced secret schadenfreude in which I privately experience pleasure from the misfortunes of others. A prime example is when you celebrate at the end of film when a villan gets "what he deserved". I'm not saying my friend is a villan, quite the opposite in fact. But yet, her struggle gave me a feeling of happiness ... in some demented way.

This morning I had a bit of secret schadenfreude again. I went out for a run with my sister (who is about as much of a runner as I am) and she found herself struggling a bit with our run. Because she was struggling, I felt stronger. Whereas all of the runs I did last week I literally felt weak (and OLD). I have found that if I am the one offering words of encouragement to someone else it creates a very positive experience for me. I feel more confident in that particular run, but also more confident in my ability to "be a runner" as well.

So I need to find a way to keep myself surrounded by people who dont run very often, or very fast. Then I need to convince them to go out for a run with me so that I can feel good about myself. Thats not a bad thing to do, is it? Hmmmmm.

Running Log
Time:40:24   Distance:3.57 mi   Pace:11:19

My husband is off of work today, so instead of getting up at 5AM I got up at 6:30 for my run. My sister is also around and so I had a running partner. First of all, running at 6:30 was like night-and-day compared to 5AM (pun not intentional, but yet accurate). It was sunny, there were people out, I could see where I was going, I didnt think I was going to get jumped. In addition, I've mentioned before that I'm not a solo runner, so running with someone was just fantastic.

Regardless of how I felt during the run, I was just so happy it wasnt 5AM. I was optimistic heading out and I think that made the whole run a bit more enjoyable. But then I got to thinking about how this nice AM run (with a partner) is really going to make my next 5AM run (on Friday) seem all the more horrible. Instead of panicking about my next run, I'm just going to pat myself on the back for completing all of my runs since training began. Yay me!