I know why runners talk in miles...

Besides the fact that many of them are American.

It just feels shorter when you're talking about a 5 mile run versus a 8 kilometre run.

Yesterday, I ran 5 miles at the gym on the treadmill. I did a true easy pace and it took me 59 minutes. It was an easy run from the mental aspect as well.

Let me expand and tie all of the above together.

The treadmills at the gym only talk in miles, so I knew that I needed to go 5 miles to get my prescribed 8k in (I've combined my Thursday and Saturday runs into one Friday run). I knew that 1.86 miles was equal to 3km.

I like math.

Thus, I spent a lot of the time being annoyed by Regis and Kelly looking at the display and calculating how many kilometres I had run, how many I had left, and what time I'd be at when finished.

The mental aspect of finishing 5 miles instead of 8km really kicked in once I had run 2.5mi/4km.

What makes you feel better?

2.5 to go

or

4 to go

Regardless of the fact that it is the exact same distance, it sure feels a whole lot easier to count down 2.5 miles.

And thus, I learned why lots of runners (even Canadians) tend to talk in miles after a while.

Looking forward to 10 miles with the group on Sunday.