Pace and being a runner

[PotterBook]

I like to consider myself a runner now. I'm on Week 7 of the program, do my runs on the treadmill at mostly a 4.6 pace (about a 13 minute mile) and can complete 25 minutes. Yet lots of people look at my pace and say "It's okay.. speed will come with time, then you'll really be a runner"...  Do I really need to get much faster to be considered a runner? Maybe in time my body will condition to the point where I'll want to pick up the pace, but right now I'm proud of my 13 minute mile.. and I want to say I'm a runner, cause in my book if I'm not walking, I'm running. I'm much faster than my husband who is snoring on the couch..

What are your thoughts about pace and when you considered yourself a runner?

[Rignold]

"Yet lots of people look at my pace and say "It's okay.. speed will come with time, then you'll really be a runner"... "

who are these people you hang out with? and what are they doing looking at your pace? They certainly aren't the people on here, who will tell you pace is utterly irrelevant. Nor anyone from any of the running groups I am on, tbh.

Surround yourself with less stupid people. Consider yourself a runner everytime you go running.

[PotterBook Graduate in reply to Rignold]

For clarification, no, it's no one on here. I came here because I knew you would understand. These are other people I know who go to the gym to run.. or runners who have completed races.  I don't think they mean anything by it.. but I also don't think they remember what it was to start out from an obese couch potato just 7 weeks ago.

[Zev1963 Graduate]

Rignold has it right 100%.

You run, you are a runner.  Be proud of yourself that you can run, and enjoy your running. Anyone who tries to reduce that pride and enjoyment should be avoided.  You are running for you, not for them, ignore them. Laura told you you are a runner, and she knows better than these fools

[Hidden]

Rignold has it covered, if you run you are a runner ☺ and you run at your pace , shouldn't compare yourself to anyone ...

If we all compared ourselves to someone like Mo Farah,  who just makes it look so easy and effortless ,i'd give up right away ! 

Nothing wrong with aspiring to improve and be better than you are or were . 

Hold your head up high, puff your chest out and shout it out, you are a runner !! 

[poppypug Graduate]

Hear hear Hidden  , fantastic post !

Never compare yourself to others, just the person that you used to be before you started the programme ! xxx

[Hidden in reply to poppypug]

Thank you poppypug   😊xx

[jt24 Graduate]

Look, Laura the boss lady says we're runners at the end of W6R3

YOU ARE A RUNNER

I look at my pace and like to see it improve, but only compared to my previous pace and for my 'gain'.

As others have said, we're all slower than elite runners so pace is only a number that means something to us individually.

Just keep running

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Some people run fast, some people run slowly,  but they are all runners. Don't ask us to judge your pace......it is yours and some of us are are faster than you and some of us are slower, so what we do is not really relevant.

You are absolutely right to be proud of your pace, because, regardless of your velocity, you are out there, giving your body a good workout and probably drastically reducing your risk of a vast range of physical complaints that ooze through the cushions of a sofa and invade every cell of the couchbound.

Hail, fellow runner. Keep running, keep smiling.

[secan Graduate]

Running has nothing to do with speed; it is merely a technical gesture: if there is a moment in your movement when both your feet are off the ground, you are running - regardless to the speed your are going.

[jt24 Graduate in reply to secan]

Liking this description VERY much Well said x