Did you ever wonder about how slow you could do your running and still reap the health benefits that you expect your efforts to bring you? If on a run out, you’ve had pregnant mothers pushing strollers overtake you, if you have had eight-year-old children rush past effortlessly playing with their dogs, you know what I mean. How slow can your running pace be that you can still call it running? If you are even a moderately fast runner, you know what I mean – you’ve passed these slowpokes on a regular run on the street, and you’ve wondered at what could possibly keep them wanting to still run.

A painfully slow running pace is something that the unathletic often find themselves on the defensive against. They grew up needing to be on the defensive – getting picked last for any team in school, getting a little pudgy around middle age, and having a bit of trouble keeping their weight down. When the unathletic begin their running in earnest, merely being able to complete the circuit, often seems good enough. That in itself becomes quite a feat – sore, covered in sweat and shaking from the exertion as they get. There is no consulting with running coaches, there is no gym membership to pay for, and of course, there is no euphoria that regular running brings you. The question slow runners have that never gets really answered is, does all of this trouble really benefit them? Can they really justly feel that they are running for their health?

If you look up scientific studies on running slowly, you quickly understand that there isn’t enough research published on the subject. They all say that running is good and that running more than a half hour a day is best for your health. But they all regularly express the opinion that running slowly will give way, as you get better, to running quickly. You do need to reach three-quarters your maximum heart rate if you are to benefit from your time out in the pavement, they opine; but for that, you’ll need to buy specialized heart rate monitors. You’ll also need specialized shoes for everything that’s wrong with your feet if you get serious about running, they all seem to say.

The thing is, if you are a runner who just wants to stay healthy without getting into competition with yourself, you can easily accomplish that with a very slow running pace. Slow runners do achieve that, as their cardiologists easily tell them. They get off their blood pressure medicine, and they lose weight. That is all that should matter. Even if a crawling baby overtakes them on a run.

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