When you run your first mile? And how old were you?

Best Answer

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 10,219 Member
    edited September 11 Answer ✓

    I had to run a mile once a year, from about ages 10-13, in the 1970’s, as part of the required President’s Physical Fitness test.


    Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty and I couldn’t finish it. I would get horrible, hit the ground painful, stitches in my side. When I’d hit the ground, PE teachers would yell at me, and other kids would jeer. Of course, I HATED running as a result.

    At age 58, after losing a considerable amount of weight and taking up some other exercises and succeeding with them, I decided to challenge myself to run 5k (3 miles)- which was the ultimate self challenge for me.

    I hadn’t run at all in 45 years.

    I started by doing intervals. (I couldn’t get C25K, also known as The Couch to 5k app to work on my phone or watch, so I just made it up.)


    Surprisingly, to ME, anyway, within a month I was running a couple of miles, and eventually got to three miles.

    I ran for about a year or so, didn’t love it, kept tripping on my own two clumsy feet, and getting road rash and bruises. So decided OK, I proved it, let’s move on to something else. So I took up cardio weight classes instead. Even there, I’m so clumsy that the steps often tangle my feet, so I do my own thing- probably to the chagrin of the instructors.

    But you know what? Others see me giving myself grace and they do their own thing, too. I always make sure to up the weights or reps when I’m not using the step. Just because I’m clumsy as an ox doesn’t mean I’m wimping out.


    TL:DR. Try it to challenge yourself. If you absolutely hate it, there’s myriad other great exercises out there to try.

Answers

  • kmp9881
    kmp9881 Posts: 65 Member

    I started running when I was 14 or 15. Did shorter distances and a half marathon up through my 20s, then started doing more distance running in my 30s after my first kid.

  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 15,344 Member

    My first time-recorded mile run was 7th grade IIRC, so age 12 or so. Took something like 17 minutes as I had to stop several times to bend over and gasp for air.

  • corecult
    corecult Posts: 21 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48760041#Comment_48760041

    At 12 impressive.

  • PattyRos3
    PattyRos3 Posts: 15 Member

    I started to run this year after major weightloss, I'm 31. I do my first 5k on September 21st :)

  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,878 Member

    Fourth grade, so 9ish, was my first mile run at field day. They called it a 4 Lap run, but it was roughly a mile. It was a dirt track around the pee-wee football field. Thought I was going to die, but there was a girl, Stella, running right with me and I was too competitive to stop and so was she. We finished 2nd & 3rd. There was a 6th grader who I am pretty sure lapped us to take 1st.

  • rms62003
    rms62003 Posts: 193 Member

    Had to do the President's challenge as well, so started running as a teenager. Personally, I'm NOT a runner, and don't understand people that do marathons.

    That said, 2 miles is part of a typical workout for me now, 3-4 times a week. I'm doing spurts of 5 mph on the treadmill, with 4 mph as my base. For me, 3.5 mph is now an easy pace. When I started back at the gym August 2024, I maxed out at 2.5 mph.

    I'm hoping to do a consistent 5mph by the end of the year, and hope to increase my daily average to 3mph at that time.

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