Don't Knock Someone's Pace Until You Try It

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!

There are few things that upset and frustrate me than people who criticize others for their pace, especially newbie runners.

About the only thing worse are those who mock/make fun of/complain about newbies at the gym. (Why would you put down someone who's trying to better themselves? Instead of criticizing, why not offer encouragement? If you see them struggling, how about offering help or assistance?)

There's nothing more discouraging to a young runner than to be told their pace is way slow.

Your pace is your pace. Own it.

If you run a 15-minute mile, then guess what? You're lapping everyone sitting on the couch.

Yes, you can improve your pace over time. It's very possible, I've been able to better my pace over the years even as I entered the 40s and now creeping continually closer and closer to 50. When I started running an 11:30 mile was a dream. In recent weeks, I was able to run 9-plus miles at an average pace of 9:30.

And that's with me still trying to shake the remnants of PF.

My favorite thing about the running community is how supportive it is. When running a race, most don't care what your time is - unless you PR, of course. Most only care that you finished the race.

That's the goal. Finishing the race.

The vast majority of us runners aren't going to win a race or even place in their age group. But finishing the race is something we all can do.

Yet, finishing a race isn't something everyone does because not everyone attempts to run a race. Think about this, 549,875 finished a marathon in 2014. (Here's the link to the data.) And that's a record. There are over 330 million people in the United States; however, just over a half million finish a marathon every year.

So, if you've finished a marathon; heck any race for that matter, I don't care what your pace was. You rock. You are awesome. You did something most people won't even attempt.

And for that I applaud you.