A few years ago when I was a long-term substitute teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia (Howard County), MD in 2007. During that time, we saw this new Disney movie called "Jump In". The movie had popular stars like Keke Palmer and Corbin Bleu, and it was about this teen who was a boxer (played by Corbin Bleu, who was also in the popular "High School Musical" series) who got into competitive double-dutch jump-roping through a team that his sister was on. He finds that he is good at it and can excel at it. I know this may sound a little corny, but I felt inspired by this movie, especially since I was getting into my first endeavor of running in a running event in every Maryland county before 2007 ended. The kids seemed to like it for the most part. There was this one song from Corbin Bleu (I think it was him who was singing it) that seemed to stick out from the movie, the chorus of which went something like this: "Push it, push it to the limit, limit, 'cause you're in it to win it, win it!"
The students seemed to find it upbeat and inspiring. Again, not to sound too corny, I did too!
So I find myself thinking back to movies like that lately, especially since I think I am in my biggest running rut since I began running about 13 years ago in the seventh grade. I feel like I have not put in as much effort as I have been to run three miles under 22 minutes since the summer of 1998 before I started high school! So far, my fastest 5K has been recently, around 22:10 on a flat track as a split on an independent 5.5-mile outdoor track run. Up until that point, I don't think I had run a 5K in under 23 minutes in over a month! It has probably also been about two months now since I have run under a six-minute mile (then again, I haven't really been trying to do that as much as I have been focusing on building an endurance base with steady distance runs). Usually when I come back from breaks from running, I can usually run better times for certain distances, and without it being more of an ordeal (and of course there is also the challenge this time around of me getting adjusted to the heat). One example of this was back in 2006 when I ran the Metric Marathon of 26.2 kilometers (approximately 16.3 miles) in Howard County, Maryland, and that has been the longest race I have run to-date. Not long after that, I took a break from running for about a month or so after running a relatively longer race for me, and running so well at quite a higher quantity of races leading up to the Metric Marathon. When I started back around mid January of 2007, I started off trying to do more of my runs on a smoother and flatter surface: an outdoor track (usually the one at Hammond High School where I was living at the time in Howard County, Maryland). I worked all the way up to about 4.5 miles on the track during that winter of 2007. I remember on one of those runs, I had done four miles in about 26:25 on no more than four hours of sleep from working a long very early morning shift just before I ran that run. Then, not long after, I had a pretty strong 28:05ish thereabouts for 4.5 miles on the track. With that run, I think I remember going through the first mile around 6:06/6:07ish, the second mile in an even 12:13ish, my 5-kilometer split was right around the lower end of 19 minutes, and had my leg not started cramping up around then, I probably would have broken 28 minutes on that solo run. Back then I was reasonably happy with that. Now over three years later, I would probably celebrate ferociously if I ran a time like that for 4.5 miles, even if it were on a flat track.
I am not complaining, I am just making a point about how I seemed to have notably slowed up. This time around I have worked my distance runs up to 5.5 miles on the track and I think that is how far I will run on a track at this particular point. Here is how some of them went that I remember:
3.5 miles - I remember the heat was a pretty challenging factor here, as I worked fairly hard to run this distance in about 25:56
4 miles - Friday afternoon run, I ran this in about 30:04
4.5 miles - Another Friday afternoon run at a pace fairly similar to the recent 4-mile run on the track. Towards the end of the run, I had a feeling that I might be able to run my 4-mile split a little faster than I had done the four-mile run recently, and I wanted to get it under 30 minutes, and I went through four miles in 29:56 thereabouts, and kept up the slightly-under-7:30-mile-pace and finished the 4.5 miles in about 33:38.
5 miles - I started out on this track run relatively slowly, and that's what I wanted. In fact, I ran the first quarter-mile with my cellphone, leaving a voicemail with my girlfriend, Kay, as I was talking through a wired headset. I was going quite slow, and I went through the first quarter-mile in 2:53 (and usually I;m at least a minute faster than that). Then, the next lap I still held onto my cell phone and that slowed me up a bit, though I was still able to pick up the pace considerable. After those first two laps I was able to put my cellphone down with my other stuff, and I was able to maintain a relatively chill pace (though still faster than what I ran my first lap in). My first mile was 9:27, though my second mile must have been about an 8:02 since my 2-mile split was about 17:29. I ended up finishing the five-mile distance in 40:31, averaging about 8:06-per-mile, which is quite an improvement over the 9:27-mile I first went out at.
Then, came the next day (which is now this past Tuesday, May 25, 2010), when I ran 5.5 miles (the last in this series of track distance runs that I hope to do for a while). It was hotter than many of the other days I had been out running lately. Since I noticed a lot of my times were right around or barely under averaging 7:30-per-mile, I wanted to see if I could run this distance in under a 7:30-per-mile-pace (which would mean running it in under 41:15). If I did not run faster than that time, I would probably try that goal with this distance again in the near future.
I think oftentimes when I set goals like that, I go out a little faster than intended to really try and meet that goal.
That's what happened with the first mile, which I went through in 7:03, one of my faster miles I have run since I started back at the beginning of this month. Then, I must have dropped around a 6:57 the next mile, because I was at 14:00 for the second mile. Then, I ran through 2.5 miles in 17:35/17:36. All I knew was at this point, I was running faster on this training run than I had on all of my other ones this month.
To my pleasant surprise, I slowed a bit, yet still went through three miles in 21:14, which was obviously faster than the 21:58 I had run the approximately-2.9-mile distance of the Queen Anne's County 5K Police K-9 Chase I had run on Kent Island on Saturday, May 15, 2010, and this was 3 miles, a little bit longer than 2.9 miles (and up until this point, that race was probably the fastest time I had run for a distance around three miles this month). I went through about 5-kilometers (approximately 3.1 miles) in 22:10, my fastest 5K this month as I mentioned earlier. Okay, all those stats aside, I pressed on feeling a little more encouraged, yet apprehensive that the heat would eventually get to me or that my somewhat stiff right knee/leg would start giving me more noticeable problems. Yet, God helped me keep going. I noticed that my mouth was not nearly as dry as it had been lately with the heat, and I felt a little more like my normal running self.
At about 3.5 miles I was at around 24:49 I think, then I was very delighted to have run my fastest four-mile time in a while as my 4-mile split was 28:45 (a minute-and-eleven seconds faster than the 29:56 I had run recently on a 4.5-mile run). I was feeling quite optimistic about this, and I think my 4.5-mile split was around 32:40ish. With less than a mile to go, I was very confident that God would get me through this in a healthy manner.
Throughout the run, I toyed with the idea of trying to do the whole thing in not only under 41:15, but under 40 minutes as well, though most of the time I thought it would be too much of an exertion. However, after running through five miles in 36:10, I prayed that God would help me finish this five-and-a-half-mile run in under 40 minutes. And He helped me do just that as I picked up the pace a little bit to run those last two laps in about 3:30, and finish the entire run in a time of 39:40, surpassing my goal for the run by well over a minute!
I don't want to jump the gun here and call this a "break-thru run" where I may be "breaking out" of this rut I have been finding myself in with running, but it was so sweetly ironic. The longest training run I have done this month has pretty much been my fastest, surpassing in pace what I ran my 3.5-mile, 4-mile, 4.5-mile, and especially my 5-mile-run times earlier this month. I will honestly admit that this was one of the runs where I really felt stronger than many of the other ones I ran this month. I think that it made a noticeable difference not having the dry mouth bother me as much (if at all, I really do not remember noticing it). Perhaps if it was allergies causing it, they may be subsiding now.
I know I gotta stay focused and not allow the fact that my running has pretty much been in a rut this school year (which also involved taking two breaks from it) cause me to lose hope that things can get better again. I gotta trust that whatever happens with it, that God is in control and that this is happening for a reason; the nobility and goodness of which I may never come to understand. I feel that the devil may want me to get down on myself about it, but I have to remember that he is the enemy that has come to kill and destroy, and in God's name I will not and do not want the enemy to have that kind of foothold in my life! This gift and passion for running, like anything else, is a gift from God that He can give and take away as He pleases and sees fit for His perfect will. I am gonna make the best of where I am at, maybe do more races as the weather gets a little cooler towards the fall, and just try to enjoy my running in its present form. Things could be a lot worse, and as I try to think and say many times, I am blessed to be running.
"Push it, push it, to the limit, limit!" - Corbin Bleu from "Jump In"
Races I Have Done This Year as of Tuesday, May 25, 2010
1). Friday, January 1, 2010 – 3rd Annual Southern Maryland Community Network Resolution Run 5K – Prince Frederick (Calvert County), MD – 9th overall (2nd in male 20-29 age-group division) – 20:38 (clock time), 20:34 (watch time)
2). Sunday, January 10, 2010 – Mighty Medford Freeway 5K – Medford/Westminster (Carroll County), MD – 8th overall (20-29 male age-group division winner) – 20:25
3). Sunday, March 7, 2010 – Howard County Striders “Operation Iceberg” Winter Series #6: Oakland Mills Middle School 6-Mile Race – 17th overall – 43:55 (ran at an even pace, and ran negative splits too )
4). Saturday, March 13, 2010 – 3rd Annual Pi-Mile (3.14-mile) Run – Patuxent High School, Lusby (Calvert County), MD – 7th overall (20-29 male age group division winner) – 23:29.0
5). Saturday, March 20, 2010 (9:00 A.M.) – Inaugural Francie’s Family 5K – Middletown Park, Middletown (Frederick County), MD – 10th overall (20-29 male age-group division winner) – 2!:07.25
6). Saturday, March 20, 2010 (11:00 A.M.) – 2nd Annual Matt Boles 5K Fun Run – East Middle School, Westminster (Carroll County), MD – 23:54
7). Saturday, March 20, 2010 (1:00 P.M.) – 28th Annual “Forest of Needwood”/”Jennifer Schafer Odom Memorial” 5 Mile Road Race – Knoxville/Petersville/Brunswick (Frederick County), MD – 35th overall (20-29 male age-group division winner) - 44:57 (clock time), 44:55 (watch time)
8). Saturday, April 3, 2010 – 2nd Annual Race for Joe 5K – Borough of Franklin Park/McCandless Township (Allegheny County), Pennsylvania – 13th overall (2nd in male 20-29 age-group division) – 21:01 (clock time), 20:57/20:58 (watch time)
9). Saturday, April 10, 2010 – 1st Annual Hills of Milltown 5K Challenge (it was closer to 3.45 miles according to someone’s GPS) – Historic Ellicott City (Howard County), MD – 10th overall (3rd in male 19-19 age-group division) – 24:21
10). Saturday, May 15, 2010 – 1st Annual Queen Anne’s Police K-9 Chase 5K (it was around 2.9 miles) – Terrapin Nature Center area, Stevensville/Kent Island – Queen Anne’s County, MD – 10th overall (4th in male 21-30 age-group division) - 21:58.9 (as of completing this race, I can say I have done a race on all general areas of the Cross-Island Trail on Kent Island )
Please check out the events I did in 2009:
http://ranineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2009/12/reflection-on-2009.html
Please check out the events I did in 2008:
http://ranineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2008/12/
not-much-longer-until-2009.html
Please check out the events I did in 2007:
http://runineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2007/09/
i-ran-in-running-event-in-all-of.html
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