23km: Why it's my favorite distance and how I got there.

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Almost a year ago, I ran the furthest I'd ever run at that point, just a little more than a half marathon distance, and to me, it was a really big deal! I had joined one of my friends, Nikki, on her training run. I remember as my garmin ticked past 21.1km, that I had a few tears welling up in my eyes for how far I had come.

Obviously, since that day, I have run more than that many times over, but that distance still marks a special moment for me in my training. Saying goodbye to the half marathon distance and hello to a new bigger goal. The marathon. Last June, I went out for a training run and ran that far by myself. And again, for me, that was a really big deal. As I quickly approach my 2nd marathon, I find myself reflecting on that day when it all became real, the day I knew I would one day run a full marathon.

There was a time, only a few years ago, when I couldn't even run 5km by myself. Running has become such a huge part of my life since then, doing so many things that I never thought I would do. All I had to do was stop saying "can't" and get out there. Some days I would hardly run, it would mostly be walking, but gradually I made my way up to running for 10 minutes and walking for a minute, and continuing on that way until I reached the desired distance. The 1st half marathon I ever did, I was taught to run without intervals and my finish time was a lot slower, my slowest in fact except for Lululemon 2012, which was a disaster for other reasons entirely.

To this day, I still do 10/1s for my long runs. My 10 minute portions have become faster and that's how I have improved. Mentally and physically they work really well for me. I credit them for having gotten this far in running. Some people see them as a cop-out, as if somehow because I take a 1 minute walk break, I'm not a "real" runner and I can't improve beyond a beginner level. Well, I'm just not sure how you can possibly think that? How is it any different from people who walk through water stations or stop to take a gel? Don't get me wrong, towards the end of a race, if things are going well, I've been known to skip a few walk breaks, but for the majority I take them no matter what, and because of that I'm able to go a lot faster during the following 10 minutes.

I'm not trying to take anything away from people who run 100 miles, 50 miles, marathons, and so on, or people who run straight through without stopping... but we are all runners and part of the running community and I think that we should all try to honor that more. Whether we are running 5k, 10k, 23k, a marathon or more, however we get to the finish line, it's getting there that counts. Does being a more experienced runner give anyone the right to judge how I run or how I get to that finish line?

Let's rewind a little bit here, I had planned to write a post about surpassing 23km in your training and how much that distance in particular has meant to me over the past year. But last week, I read something and it gave me cause to reflect on literally how I got to 23km and surpassed that goal many times over.

I find that in general, there is a divide between runners who run to win and runners who run just because it's something they love to do, such as a recreational runner like myself. It would be nice if one day I could win a race, but it's not the reason I run, nor is it a goal or priority. I aspire to beat my own time and challenge myself every time I hit the pavement. So let's let go of the judgement and the comparison to other runners, and just do what we love.

Trail runner or road runner. Elite runner or recreational runner. We all love the same thing, can't we just embrace that?

My favorite running quote:
"I often hear someone say I'm not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner."
-Bart Yasso