From the start of 2023, I began to build up my running stamina. I would run a couple times a week, then increase the distance for the following week. The bottom of my shins always seemed to take the brunt of it, maybe I was stomping as I ran, but my knees never ached, and I always felt ready to run the next time I came to the gym.
Those were two good developments, but the best was one that came as an absolute surprise — I was running faster than I was before all my knee problems.
The last time I was running consistently was in 2016 when I ran my first half marathon. In the races that gradually built up in distance, my average pace was about ten minutes per mile. For shorter races, like 5k’s, my quick pace was nine minutes.
My first few runs were double digit paces, but as I built up the distance, from three laps to five (one third of a mile), to half a mile, two thirds and then a mile, my pace shrunk into the nine minute range. I couldn’t believe it. I was convinced when I started running again, even if the limp was gone, I would still be in the range of fifteen minutes to maybe twelve at best. Recapturing the speed of my running days would have been amazing enough.
But faster?
What was more, as I continued to add laps to my runs, and my legs no longer felt weighted and rigid, my pace continued to quicken. I was pushing myself every time to run fast, and was finding myself consistently dipping below nine minute miles into the eight minute range.
This was so fantastic that I actually feared I was derailing my running when I stopped going to the gym to run for 2 weeks in March after my first script consultation when I focused on making all those revisions to re-submit my screenplay of Dig Down into the Page Turner Screenplay Competition.
When I resumed my running after the 2 week writing hiatus, I dropped back down to rebuild my stamina. I was expecting to have to start from scratch again. Indeed, my legs felt weighted, like I was stomping each lap instead of running it, and my shins felt sore and rigid again.
But my pace was still in the nine minute range.
And on top of that, I was no longer feeling winded when I was running. My legs started adjusting to running a few times a week again. After the knee surgery, and all the years not running, I was now somehow faster than I’d been when I was younger and healthier.
The only catch was that most times I ran was only for a mile. Occasionally I pushed myself to a mile and a half. I was still only running a fraction of the shortest distance I used to run.
I was due to test myself once again.