Runner’s Dilemma #33 — Can a 45-Minute 10K Be Reached Without Being Born for It?
Runner's Log | Runner's Dilemma #33
Can a 45-Minute 10K Be Reached Without Being Born for It?
The day my sub-4 marathon attempt fell apart.
I had drinks with the people I ran with.
I was crushed, but I told them I’d try again.
Then a thought came to me.
So at the table, I said this.
Then a club member who had volunteered at the race spoke up.
“Then 48?”
“Come on, that’s weak. You should be under 45.”
“Alright. 45!”
“And by when? You need a penalty, too.”
“If I don’t hit 45 minutes in the 10K by the end of December, the first and second rounds are on me!”
Somehow, my goal had gone from 50 minutes to 45.
It feels like it was decided way too lightly… but it’s true. Haha.
But when I got home and thought about it, I started to wonder.
Or do you have to be born to run?
I. We All Started at 1km
When you first start running, you think something like this.
Then you run 3km, then 5km, and before you know it, you’re running 10km.
Keep running like that, and at some point a new goal appears.
At first, just finishing 10km was enough. Now you start wondering about your time.
Could I do 50?
Some people are happy just to finish. Others enjoy shaving their time down little by little.
I was someone who hesitated for a long time in front of the 50-minute wall.
And now here I am, talking about 45.
II. The 50 Minutes I Thought Were Impossible
I didn’t start out caring about times, either.
My body would get into decent shape, then work got busy, family got busy, and my running faded.
When I started again, even a 10K in an hour was hard.
Going back and forth like that, 50 minutes felt completely out of reach for me for more than ten years.
I had never come in under 55, and more often than not I was over an hour.
Then a rough stretch at work came along, and for about a month I ran 10km almost every day.
Around then, I heard that a friend who had started running after me had broken 50.
My pride took a little hit.
This was the friend who used to ask me about running. Haha.
So one day, I decided to really go for it.
51 to 52 minutes.
Closer than I expected.
After that, I pushed the pace a little more each time I ran.
One day I started at a comfortable low-5:00 pace, picked it up bit by bit, and held on to the end even when it hurt.
The result was 47:44.
I had gotten past the 50 minutes I’d thought impossible for so long.
(That was three years ago. Right now I’m back to around 52 minutes.)
Of course, changing my mind alone didn’t make me faster.
Running almost every day for a month got my body used to running, and after that I did faster training too.
But I realized one thing back then.
was that I had set my own limit first.
III. Not Just Slow — Speed, Too
After my first full marathon, injuries came.
I’d get better and start running again, then get hurt again. I’d rest, run again, and get hurt again.
That cycle of running and injury has now gone on for two years.
I was afraid of getting hurt again.
I figured that if I ran slowly and carefully, I could get back to my old body.
So I trained mostly slow.
But after dropping out of this marathon at 21km, I started rethinking.
So lately, I’ve been putting some fast running into every run.
The day after the race, I ran 7km and sped up in the middle. Three days later, I did three 7-minute intervals.
My pace on the fast parts was around 4:30 per km.
That’s the average pace you need to hold for a 45-minute 10K.
Of course, running three 7-minute intervals is different from running 45 minutes without stopping.
Still, after feeling a pace I had always thought was far away, a thought came to me.
And since I’m still recovering from injury, I plan to keep training while listening to my body, rather than forcing the speed up.
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IV. Closing
Someone who thought even 50 minutes was impossible for over ten years has now set 45 as a goal.
I used to get faster just by running.
After the injuries, I focused on running slowly for fear of getting hurt again.
And now I’m facing a new question.
Does natural ability decide your times?
Or can proper training and steady effort help me slowly get past the limits I set for myself?
I don’t know yet.
But this time, I decided to think this way.
don’t decide it’s impossible from the start.
Changing my mind alone won’t make my times better, but until I actually try, I can’t know what’s possible.
I’ll keep going until the end of December.
Whatever the result, I want to see how much I’ve changed by then.
Are you thinking this right now?
‘A 50-minute 10K is impossible for me!’
I thought so, too, once.
But when I actually tried, I got past a time I’d thought was impossible.
A 45-minute 10K is the same story.
I don’t know yet if I can do it. I just don’t want to call it impossible before I try.
A goal you once thought, “That’s not for me.”
I’d love to hear your story.
