Sam approached me and congratulated me on my run. He had placed second behind me and said that I had encouraged him to run faster.
Today wasn’t his best time.
His PB is 19:53 and he sighed as he said he just wasn’t sure how he would get back into the sub-’20s again.
Sam is a local at the Moora parkrun. He has run the event 42 times, and more often then not he is the winner.
Competing in the age category JM 11-14 I wanted to assure Sam that he had plenty of good running years left in him to get back into the sub-’20s.
How could I be so sure you ask?
Well, here I am at 33 running sub-’20s, and have set a new PB of 19:24!
I can hardly believe it.
I can, however, relate to Sam’s sub 20 woes as I spent the better part of two years trying to achieve it.
Every Saturday morning I would wonder if it would be the day I'd finally go sub 20.
I had come close on several occasions, but could never get there.
Every time I tried and failed I would go home with a sense of disappointment.
It got worse after I made the public announcement that I was going to run a sub 20, and then I still couldn't get there!
I put such a big emphasis on reaching this goal that I started to lose sight of what parkrun was all about in the first place.
For such a big build-up it turned out to be a day just like any other when I finally broke 20 minutes at Kalgoorlie parkrun.
There was no fanfare, no life-changing moment - in fact, I didn't even realise I had done it.
According to my watch, I had run a 20:07.
The only thing that felt different was I didn't have the usual fade in the 3rd km and ran strong the whole way through.
The first I knew of it was when a message from my Dad popped up on my Garmin:
I did it. I finally cracked the 20 minutes.
I felt a brief sense of achievement although it quickly faded as it dawned on me that it no longer mattered.
The reason I get up early every Saturday morning is not about trying to run sub 20.
It is about feeling a connection.
It is about being part of something greater than myself.
It is about celebrating others success.
I used to think it was more important to congratulate the person that came first on their terrific run rather than hang around to cheer home the runner that came in last.
Maybe because that's who I thought I wanted to be.
But now I've learnt that the most important thing is to wait to cheer home every runner.
Why?
Well, I think Paulene articulates this better than I ever could, so I shall leave you with her words of wisdom.
Today wasn’t his best time.
His PB is 19:53 and he sighed as he said he just wasn’t sure how he would get back into the sub-’20s again.
Sam is a local at the Moora parkrun. He has run the event 42 times, and more often then not he is the winner.
Competing in the age category JM 11-14 I wanted to assure Sam that he had plenty of good running years left in him to get back into the sub-’20s.
How could I be so sure you ask?
Well, here I am at 33 running sub-’20s, and have set a new PB of 19:24!
I can hardly believe it.
I can, however, relate to Sam’s sub 20 woes as I spent the better part of two years trying to achieve it.
Every Saturday morning I would wonder if it would be the day I'd finally go sub 20.
I had come close on several occasions, but could never get there.
Every time I tried and failed I would go home with a sense of disappointment.
It got worse after I made the public announcement that I was going to run a sub 20, and then I still couldn't get there!
I put such a big emphasis on reaching this goal that I started to lose sight of what parkrun was all about in the first place.
For such a big build-up it turned out to be a day just like any other when I finally broke 20 minutes at Kalgoorlie parkrun.
There was no fanfare, no life-changing moment - in fact, I didn't even realise I had done it.
According to my watch, I had run a 20:07.
The only thing that felt different was I didn't have the usual fade in the 3rd km and ran strong the whole way through.
The first I knew of it was when a message from my Dad popped up on my Garmin:
Well done. You crack the 20:00
by 00:01
I was driving from Kalgoorlie down to Esperance and hadn't checked my emails so I pulled over to the side of the road to confirm this.
Well, will you look at that!
Kalgoorlie-Boulder parkrun results for event #251. Your time was 00:19:59.
I felt a brief sense of achievement although it quickly faded as it dawned on me that it no longer mattered.
The reason I get up early every Saturday morning is not about trying to run sub 20.
It is about feeling a connection.
It is about being part of something greater than myself.
It is about celebrating others success.
I used to think it was more important to congratulate the person that came first on their terrific run rather than hang around to cheer home the runner that came in last.
Maybe because that's who I thought I wanted to be.
But now I've learnt that the most important thing is to wait to cheer home every runner.
Why?
Well, I think Paulene articulates this better than I ever could, so I shall leave you with her words of wisdom.
EVERYONE had a place at parkrun. Runners, walkers, older people, young children, fit people, really overweight people and everyone in between.
Some ran the whole way, some walked the whole way, some did a bit of both. The time I took to finish the 5km was of absolutely ZERO importance to anyone but me!
No one judged, no one cared.
We were all parkrun’ing.
We were all winners for simply showing up and getting it done.
We were all welcome.
We were parkrun.
-Paulene
Happy running x
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