How many lunatics are there who do this?

500,000 Americans complete a marathon every year

One question that never leaves my mind when I'm running is, "How fast should I go?"  When I'm doing a short distance, 3 miles or less, I like to push myself until the point where I can audibly hear myself breathing hard.  When I'm doing a longer distance, I like to keep myself just under that limit; I slow down when I realize I can hear myself exhaling.  I've recently been feeling very proud of my improving mph rates, approaching 6 miles per hour. Hurray for me!  Today I ran at a pace that felt good, that I hope to be able to maintain for the duration of the 13.1 miles I will be running in October. If by October 2nd I can maintain today's pace for an entire 13.1 miles, it will take me 2 hours and 11 minutes to finish the half-marathon.  Yes!  I can do it.

Then I looked up standard marathon speeds.  I find this amazing.  The fastest women Chicago marathoners run 26.2 miles in roughly the same amount of time I *hope* to run a half-marathon.  I felt like I was flying today.  The truth is that I was running about 1/2 the speed that they run, and they keep that double-time pace up for twice the distance I intend to cover.  They literally run about as fast as I ride my mountain bike.  Wow.  I am humbly in awe.  I need to be sure to use this information to inspire and not depress me. I will take heart in this:  Marathoning is a growing sport.  Every year there are approximately a half million people in the United States who finish a marathon.  Happily for me, the average finish time for the women running these races is not 2 1/2, but about 5 hours.  :)   That's more like it!  Take a look at this article in ask.com to learn more.  While you do that, I'm going to get some rest... tomorrow morning I'm scheduled to run 8 miles.  
Até amanhã... 
8/12/11 - 2.0 miles | 20 mins | 5.8 mph | 218 kcal