Life in the slow lane

I'm about a month into my experiment of trying to become a runner. I've experienced some success and learned a lot. For example, I quickly progressed from run-walking to exclusively running. Yay! I've determined that, like most people, running outside is much preferable to slogging through a workout on the treadmill. I've learned all about what it's like to go out for a run on an upper-30s morning wearing a fleece, hat and gloves only to wish that I could shed all those layers about five minutes in. I've discovered the pleasure of the calmness that settles into your bones resting after a run.

All of the progress I've made feels nice, but a great deal of this foray also has involved a considerable amount of pride swallowing. You see, I'm competitive. I want to do well at this, but the truth is, I'm slow. Going into this with very little knowledge, I thought 10-minute miles would be a good, respectable place to start. But I'm simply not there. Right now, it's more like 11.5 minutes for me, and to my ear, that does not sound very good.

Naturally, I set about comparing myself to other people, beginning with my husband, who's just better at this than I am - and who's been at it a good two years longer than I have. Next, I progressed to a friend, who also lives in Menasha but whom I'm routinely shocked to see - when I'm out in my car, natch - running crazy distances - Memorial Park, Kohl's in Darboy. "I'm curious," I said to her. "How fast do you run on the treadmill?" "Oh, I usually start at around 7.5 and try to make my way up to 9," she said. Yeah, I'm more comfortable around 5.5, and I cannot maintain 6 for more than two or three minutes.

I asked Google, "What's a good pace for a beginning runner?" I came across a lot of forums (or is it fora?) that discussed this. Most contributors responded helpfully to questioners: go at your own pace, starting slow is fine, try to work up to running 30 minutes without stopping. One smart a$$, however, cautioned that if you ran your 5K doing 11- to 12-minute miles, you'd be "finishing with the grannies."

I'm sure I'll get faster as I progress, but I'll never be, you know, fast. I think I need to be ok with that. So when I run my first (and maybe last?) 5K, the Sole Burner, in two weeks, I guess I'll just have to settle for finishing with the senior citizens. Maybe I'll find it within myself to sprint past a couple grannies the last 100 yards.