It was a clear, cold and crisp Sunday morning. My heart was beating
hard, but I was still able to breathe pretty evenly as I was nearing the final part
of my 14 mile marathon pace run. The air was cold and my lungs were burning,
but I felt great. I had lost track of time and all I could remember was that I
had been doing roughly 7 minute miles. Just then the metallic and monotonous
voice of Run Keeper came out of
nowhere stating: “Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes, Distance: 13.1….”At that moment
I stopped listening, I had just run my first half marathon in under one and
half hours - on a training run! The neutral tone of Run Keeper went from the familiar voice I had listened to for miles
and miles, to a well-known veteran sports commentator who had just announced a
sportsman winning the world cup prize in their field. All at once I was
reassured, surprised and happy that I had made a significant step towards
standing a reasonable chance of running a marathon in under 3 hours. I punched
the air I was that happy and I just couldn’t quite believe it. During this
golden moment I thought about how I had got to this milestone and a number of
recent training memories came back into mind; some good some bad, but one in
particular stood out.
