The numbers weren't so runderful

This past weekend I went out and ran my longest post-injury run on the poop lined NCR Trail in northern Baltimore County, MD. Not only was it my longest run but it was the first long run since I suffered a stress fracture in my foot that I tracked with my Garmin 410. I'd been avoiding data because I didn't want to become depressed over how slow I've gotten but I wanted to keep track of my mileage on this run so I didn't have much choice but to strap the thing on.

Thanks to the "magic" of the Garmin ANT Agent the data regarding my run, which I thought was pretty spectacular before I saw the cold, hard numbers, was uploaded automatically to my PC, and then that blasted Garmin Connect (RIP, Motion Based) automatically launched so the grim data could stare at me, mocking. When I was running I felt like I got faster as each mile went by, but the data said the sixth mile of my 7.25 miler was actually my slowest mile split. However, the seventh mile was the fastest by far, and the last quarter mile was almost an all-out sprint (relatively speaking). But that sixth mile. Yeesh.


This is how I felt as I finished my run. The reality was much, much more harsh.
It just goes to show that unless you're competitive it's pointless to harp on a run's data. Feeling is definitely the best way to determine how well it goes. Once you start to dwell on the numbers you're bound to make yourself miserable, and life is too short to make yourself miserable about things that don't really matter.

It's taken a couple days for me to come to terms with it, but I am running 7 miles at an almost 60 second per mile pace slower than I ran that distance just one year ago. And even though 7 minutes is an eternity when you're talking about running times I'm not going to kill myself over it. I'd rather take pride in the fact that I ran 7 miles without stopping and did it without suffering any ill effects after my feet pounded the ground for over an hour.

So I will.