8:40

I think it’s pretty well-established by now that I am not a fast runner, especially when I’m running with Zain in the jogging stroller.  A couple months ago, I set out on a run where I attempted to speed up my pace while running with Zain.  I was really proud of what I accomplished in that short run and it motivated me to keep trying to run faster.  My fastest mile had been 9:05.

Since then, I’ve had some mile splits that were faster than that, but not while I was pushing Zain in the stroller, only on solo runs.  I’ve had a few runs with Zain where my mile time hovers in the mid 9 minute range and I try to push my pace a little more, but no luck in beating that 9:05 personal record.

When I posted about 9:05 mile blog post on Twitter, I distinctly remember one comment that stood out in the several congratulatory tweets.  One of my followers said she couldn’t wait to hear about my sub-9 minute mile with the stroller.  I thought that sounded like the perfect goal to keep in mind.  Up until today, I couldn’t ever seem to get my legs to move fast enough to achieve that goal.  I remember one run about a month or so ago where I thought a sub-9:05 minute mile was at least in sight, but it ended up being 9:06.  Ugh!

My 4 mile run started out slow this morning – 10:22 for the first mile, 10:02 for the second and 9:41 for the third.  I liked the trend I was seeing and tried to keep my legs moving at a good pace.  At the beginning of the last mile, I noticed my pace hovering around 8:50-55 and I thought, hmm…maybe today is the day I will run my sub-9 minute mile while pushing the stroller.

Then I saw my pace jump back to the 9:10 range and I started to think maybe today wasn’t the day.  I forced my tired legs to move faster and slipped back under the 9 minute range.  I gave it all I had for the last half a mile and was hoping to see an average pace of around 8:55 to pop up on my Garmin when it beeped at 4 miles, but I was ecstatic to see that it said 8:40.  8:40!!! A second shy of being a whole minute faster than my third mile and 25 seconds quicker than my previous fastest stroller mile.  I did it! I got my sub-9 minute stroller mile.  Physically, it was hard; my legs were still mad at me from my 18 mile run on Saturday.  Mentally, it was even harder; I could hear this voice in the back on my head telling me I couldn’t do it and I just had to tell myself that I could.  And I did.

Now I just need to figure out how to run at that pace all the time.  That’s the tough part!

Happy running!

Related articles

• 9:05 (the-running-mom.com)
• Zain’s Half Marathon (the-running-mom.com)
• For the first time ever… (the-running-mom.com)