Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Proverbs 27:17 (04/27/23)
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TITLE: Speed and Stamina | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
05/03/23 -
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As dawn spread its light, I saw Grace warming up. “Morning,” I called out as I approached.
“Morning,” Grace replied. “Let’s get this started.”
I opened the training app on my phone to set it. “Ok, so we run 30 minutes and cover three miles at ten minutes a mile.”
Grace groaned, “Can we make it 11 minutes a mile? I don’t know that I can do ten.”
I sniggered, “After last week when you made me run an extra five minutes when I wanted to give up, no way, José!”
“Yeah, I guess.” Grace pulled a stray hair off her face and adjusted her phone armband. “Let’s do this.”
I slipped my phone into its slot in my running belt, and we started with a five-minute easy lope. We chatted as we ran the quiet trails; this early in the morning, our only companions were the hare and deer that roamed the hills. We had sometimes glimpsed a fox or a coyote, but they were shyer than their prey.
As my phone pinged the start of the next segment and the actual 30-minute run, we picked up our pace, and our chatter lessened. Things were getting serious!
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Grace was now a step or two behind me. “Come on, slowpoke,” I teased. “We’ve got a pace to keep.”
“You’re too fast,” Grace said.
“Not really. According to the app, we are right at a ten-minute-a-mile pace.”
Grace sped up slightly, and we were once again running in cadence.
Every five minutes, the app dinged, providing information such as distance covered, current pace, and steps taken.
After the fourth ding, I pulled my phone out.
“What are you doing?” Grace asked.
“I think the app stopped working. There’s no way this is not 30 minutes already.” I looked down at the screen and discovered, to my chagrin and dismay, that the timer was still going, and it had only been two minutes since the last ding.
“Argh, my legs are so tired. I want to stop,” I said.
“Nope, we’ve got to finish strong,” Grace encouraged. “We’ve only got to run for another ten minutes; you’ve got this.”
“Ten minutes is an eternity. You sure we can’t stop for a rest?”
Grace chuckled, “Remember when I asked whether we could slow our pace? If you won’t let me slow down, I won’t let you stop.”
The next ten minutes certainly did not fly by on gilded wings, but Grace and I egged each other on; when she slowed, I sped up, and when I lacked stamina, she encouraged me to keep going.
The final curve was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it was the final, a curse because it was a hill, and the last thing I wanted to do was go uphill when my entire body felt like a lead balloon.
“Thirty, 29, 28…” my phone intoned. At that, Grace and I gave one final burst of speed and returned to the trailhead as the countdown ended.
I pulled my phone out and looked at the statistics. I angled the screen and shared the results with Grace. “We did it! In fact, our pace was under ten minutes for the middle mile! We did the three miles in 29 minutes and 12 seconds!”
Grace’s eyes lit up, “I’ve never run that fast before!”
“And I’ve not run that far before,” I laughed. “We’re good running partners – you help me with stamina, and I help you with speed.”
We strolled back to our cars, allowing ourselves to cool down. “Same time tomorrow,” I asked.
“Yep,” Grace responded. “And perhaps we can try for 45 minutes?”
“Only if we keep the same pace,” I said.
“Challenge accepted!”
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True story.
I know a ten-minute mile is not extraordinarily fast, but I had just had a baby, and Grace was pregnant!
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Nicely done
Blessings~