Mine was a 3.8 mile run (I actually thought that route was 4 miles for 2 about years ) in the spring of 2010, a year before I became a runner.
I wore polyester track pants, a long sleeve compression top by Under Armour, and a baseball hat turned backwards (WTF?). It was around 55 degrees or so with full sun and yeah, I about died from heat exhaustion. lol
Back in those days I would run sporadically on the treadmill for twice the amount of time so in my infinite ignorance, I did not think much of it. About halfway in however, my lower back locked up and that last 1.8 miles was pure torture but I refused to stop and walk.
I later learned of course that your body has to adapt to running outside versus on the treadmill but it was such an awful experience that I did not run again for a flippin' year!
Hip Redux
I went out and ran 2 miles in 2009 just to see if I could do it, after having not run for a decade or so.
I was in pain for about 3 days. lol
I was 19 and by myself. It was an out and back 2 mile run along our Charles River which was just outside Boston. It was Spring so probably wore a short sleeve shirt and track pants as it took a while to get that concept.
race obsessed
run... hah only if it was part of something else I was doing and only for as long as absolutely necessary.
First run to actually go 'running' I was probably around 19 and wanted to get in shape. I ran for probably 400 yards and sucked wind... I think I repeated it a few days later and that was it...
Until I was 38 and thought I could run with my wife... a mile into it desperately trying to keep up with her I was sucking wind and my legs were on fire. (she was running slower than normal just for me...)
Oh technically my "first" run would have been the silly presidential mile stuff they made us do in grade school. And then after that, I ran during college as work outs for volleyball.
So I answered with my first VOLUNTARY run. lol
In the spring of 2009, I decided to lose some weight so I would run / walk on the treadmill in my basement for 30 minutes. I would run at 5mph until I needed a break and walk and catch my breath. It was awhile before I could run a mile without stopping. The other days I would do a Jillian Michaels workout video or use the spin bike or elliptical. Eventually I started liking running more than the other exercise (and got the most bang for my buck calorie-burn-wise running).
I'm not sure I remember my first run, but I remember my first "wow, I did it" moment. I guess this was around 2009. My walking buddy had challenged me to train to run a HM, since he knew he's old and slow and holds me back. I had started a run/walk thing, knowing nothing about Galloway or C25K at the time. One day I was going to run on the treadmill. Got all dudded up, pushed the button and ..nothing. Crap piece of junk. Fine, I didn't want to anyway. But I have my clothes on, I'll just go out and run to the bridge. That'll be a mile. It's at least something. Got to the bridge, hmm, feel OK, I'll go to 1.5 mile turnaround. Hmm, still running. Turned around, ran all the way back home. That was my first nonstop 3 miles, and on a day I almost bagged it.
Threw the treadmill away.
From the Internet.
I can't remember my very first run.. I tried sporadically to enjoy running in high school and college, but didn't actually get into it until 2012. My first "run" that year was toward the end of February, probably about a mile of walk/run intervals in a local park with paved paths - I'd run until I couldn't breathe, stop to walk for a while, repeat until I felt like going home. It was July when I finally got it through my thick skull that if I slowed down I could go further and get rid of most of the walk breaks, and that's when I actually started to like it.
delicate flower
HA, I still have my Nike+ data from I first started "running" back in early 2011. I had always worked occasional treadmill runs into my gym schedule going back to 1996, but I got serious about running in Feb 2011. My first outdoor run was in March 2011: 4.1 miles at 10:12 avg pace on the rail trail. I had to take a few walk breaks (not counted in the avg) and it hurt a lot more than the treadmill did. My hips hurt for days after that. I was running 10 mpw for the first couple of months and was very happy I could handle that. I ended up running 1070 miles that year. Not bad at all.
<3
I remember that! That was a new kind of hurt!
I was maybe 32 years old, SO and I decided to try running every morning. We had never run before. We went out together, no idea what our pace was (probably too fast for our fitness) and after 12 minutes, we were both dead. We repeated that run everyday, always stopping after 12 minutes. On the 7th day, I remember that I continued for another 4 minutes while my SO had to stop at the usual 12 minute point. I thought I was on fire. A real Paula Radcliffe. Anyway, after a week like that, we both said "Ef that... Running is stupid..."
Fast forward 10 years later, I'm at a gym for the first time in my life. The only machine I can somehow make sense of is the treadmill. Hey... why not... I step on it, look at the panel. Hmm... It says 1 to 12. I guess I'll try 6, right in the middle... I start running. Okay, not too bad... Then I look on my left, a guy is running at 6.4 mph. Let's see if I can do 6.4, he doesn't look that fit anyway... 6.4 is good. Then I look on my right. That guy is going at 6.6 mph. Damn it! Why are people challenging me this way?! And up I go to 6.6 mph. And with this, I had found what would become my easy pace for the next few years and I ran 60 minutes that day, because it's a nice round number and also, I had to wait to make sure that I was the last one off the treadmill. This was the first time in my life that I ran for an hour. It was also the day I realized that I'm sort of competitive in an idiotic way...
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
I did a few sporadic stretches of running back in my 20's. For my current running incarnation: I vividly remember my first outdoor run, but I wish I could remember more specifically the date, or even the time of year. I'm gonna say sometime in 2010. I had been doing 20-30 min on the elliptical a few times a week for a few years; at some point switched to treadmill as it felt like a better workout (based on quantity of sweat produced). I had been doing ~3 miles on the treadmill; decided to try the 4-mile loop around my neighborhood. The last mile was grim death, in hindsight it felt like the end of a marathon; it took everything in my power to not allow myself to stop. I realized (1) running outside is harder, and/or (2) 4 miles is longer than 3.
Dave
...I learned the hard way (1) running outside is harder, and/or (2) 4 miles is longer than 3.
FYP, yo.
Nice comparison on that last mile!
I can't imagine many people could run a 9:05 pace for an hour for their first run. That's pretty impressive.
I couldn't even run one 12 minute mile. At 27 years old.
5K Specialist
7th grade XC tryouts. It was probably a 1 mile run around the junior high campus. At the very end of the run, I felt like I was about to collapse and barely made the XC team. I had already missed the basketball team, and I was happy though to make the XC team because the alternative was offseason. In the seventh grade I was a back the pack B team runner until the final meet. That was when I finally went all out at a meet and went for it. The next two years I was a borderline A teamer. They would run me half the time on the A team and half the time on B team because I was 6th or 7th best on the team. For team scoring only the top 5 count and the coach wanted me to win some ribbons.
Personal Bests:
800M - 2:38 (5/28/13) | 1 Mile -5:54 (5/28/13) | 3K - 11:55 (12/29/12) | 2M - 13:00 (12/1/12) | 5K - 20:00 (4/12/13) | 13.1M - 1:37:24 (2/3/13)