A 9:20 High School Miler

When I was a freshman in high school, I ran a 9:20 mile in gym class for our required "fitness" testing. I think girls had to had to run under a 10-minute mile to pass the test, and as a kid who never really ran except in tennis lessons and matches, I was pretty content with a 9:20. 

I started working out regularly my junior year of high school at the school's gym. Since I didn't yet have a car or license, and didn't want to walk the 1.5 miles home every day (this is so funny to me as that is an acceptable walking distance to me now), I had to wait for my Mom to give me a ride home after she got off work. Instead of going straight into homework after a long school day, I decided a burst of physical activity would be beneficial for me. My first cardio machine I spent a lot of time on was the elliptical. I liked the funky motion of swaying back and forth, almost like riding a stand-up bike. I also listened to a lot of Eminem on my iPod mini before getting into making playlists for myself so I didn't have to constantly choose a song every time the last one ended. 

The fitness center had three treadmills overlooking the gymnasium, and my favorite was the one in the middle. When I first started running on it I ran at the 6.0-7.0 mph speed for about 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes I would get to as high as 7.5-8.0 speed and feel like I was flying. My favorite teacher who I saw every day after school lifting there had challenged me to race a 5K against him on the treadmill and if I won I would get one free snack from the snack bin (available to all students to pay a nominal fee every time we wanted something, probably a quarter per item) every day for the rest of the school year. I think he said if I ran under 25 minutes that I would win. I don't remember my time, but I do remember that I won and was really happy about my free snacks. 

It wasn't until my senior year that I considered running cross country in the fall. I had played tennis my first three years, which was a spring sport. Wanting to keep my spring senior year fairly free of commitments, I decided to run cross country instead.

The earliest photo I have of me running, from October 2010 at a cross country race. 

In August 2010 I went to my high school's cross country camp for a few days. I don't remember much about the camp and the only photo I have from it is a group photo of all the runners in front of the bus that took us to camp. I do know that camp got me excited to try this new sport and start my relationship with running. I made the classic rookie runner mistakes of going out too fast too soon on training runs with others and not listening to my body by running through shin splints. I also definitely did not have properly fitted running shoes. But I did have a lot of fun on the team and met my best friend from high school that year on the team, too. 

Since I was so new to the sport of running, I and my coaches didn't have any expectations of what times I would be capable of or what my season goals should be. Racing on grass was such a foreign concept to me, and for some reason all of our training runs were on pavement instead of grass. We always ran out and backs and one route was my favorite, going down tree-lined Vinsetta Boulevard in Royal Oak, MI. We called it "Vinsetta 4" or how ever long we were going to go. I didn't have a GPS watch so just relied on my coach's directions of where to turn around for what distance we needed to go. 

When it came time to compete I didn't really get nervous. I was just having fun. I ran my 5K PR on two separate courses---a 25:11. After the first time I thought that maybe I could run under 25 minutes, but that never happened. After cross country season was over I stopped running until the end of college in March 2015. I ran on and off in college but didn't feel like I had enough time to dedicate to it when I was so busy with school, work, and trying to have a social life. I did still go to the gym every day for cardio on the spin bike or elliptical. My first 5K after high school was the April Big House 5K in Ann Arbor that finished on the 50-yard line inside Michigan Stadium. I ran a 23:55, easily beating my high school PR. My PR now is 18:48 at the Dexter Holiday Hustle, which I won back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. My drop in time in the mile is equally as impressive. 

The first time I ever raced a mile (after high school) was in 2015 at the Ann Arbor Dart for Art, part of Ann Arbor Art Fair week in mid-July. I ran a 6:17 and was absolutely shocked. At that point I had only been running consistently for four months and did not yet know how to incorporate speed work into my training. I basically just sprinted the mile. I then broke 6 minutes for the first time in 2018 with a 5:54. Again, I couldn't believe I just did that. In 2019 I ran a 5:33.5 and placed fifth woman overall in the Open division. That year I also experienced a physical and mental breakthrough in racing and set PRs in all distances from the mile to the marathon. I thought I could run a 5:40, and smashed that goal.

Finally, last fall I ran a 5:26.75 at an elite mile in Albion, MI. I was second to last in a field of women who had all ran collegiately, but I was really proud of my PR and especially thankful for the opportunity to race at a high level during the pandemic. 

With the workouts I'm running now, running a sub-5 minute mile is not too far off. The last two weeks I ran sub-5 minute 150m strides on the track, which I never thought I would look down and see 4:xx on my watch for something like that. I continuously amaze myself with how fast I'm becoming and how much more confident I'm feeling in my legs and in my potential. 

From a 9:20 high school miler to someone who's staring down sub-5 relatively soon, I'm so happy I have that early running experience to look back on and use as a source of inspiration for my training and racing to come.