Running - in 2013

The other day while running a friend asked how long I had been running. I said three years, I suppose technically I've always been running, it keeps popping up, but this is the first time I've ever actually stuck to it.

Winter 1991

As part of high school swimming we used to run through the neighborhoods before practice. I absolutely hated this, and did a ton of walking. I was regularly one of the last guys back.

Spring 1992

At the end of swimming season I reasoned that I should maybe join the track team, you know, so next year when we were running for swimming I wouldn't hate it or at least not be so slow. I don't really know how long that lasted, the coach put me in a two mile event at the first meet. That's when it stopped, I had no desire to do a race that long.

Winter 1992 - Winter 1994

We kept running for swimming, and I still did tons of walking and still really disliked it. Looking back I'm not even sure how far we were running. I remember thinking it was forever, I'm guessing it was only a couple of miles.

Summer 1999

I tried to pick up running, I can't remember exactly why. I was in college and would attempt to run around at least one of the lakes. There are two lakes within walking distance of campus, from the door around the small one and back is about 2.5 miles. From the door around the big one and back is about 4.5 miles. I was never able to muster up enough effort to get around the small one, and the only reason I knew the size of the big one was because of rollerblades, I definitely didn't try to run it.

Summer 2009

My wife and I had been married for a few years already. We had done a couple of 5ks but then, they consisted of quite a bit of walking, and I definitely wasn't doing any running outside of them. We had the new iPhone and one of the first apps we downloaded was a couch to 5k program. So we started that, we also signed up for my first and her third sprint triathlon. On yeah, and we had a 2 year old and a 6 month old.

So that's when it really started to get real, I knew if I wanted to do well in that triathlon I'd need to be able to run a stand alone 5k from start to finish. I reasoned that if I could do that before the race, that I'd be able to at least handle the 5k at the end, and peppering in some walking wouldn't be the end of the world.

My first attempt at couch to 5k wasn't stellar. I never got to the end, I just started shortening the runs. The next year we moved to Florida in April, we signed up for four more triathlons (package deal) and I started couch to 5k again. I didn't finish it again, I had still not been able to run three straight miles at the end of that triathlon season.

Like everywhere else, fall is running season on Florida, so my sister and I signed up for a half marathon that would be in January. So I picked up a beginner half marathon program and got started. At some point in there I was able to run more than 3 consecutive miles. I ran that first half marathon, missed my goal time and immediately signed up for another one a couple of weeks later. I hit my goal there. During this training period I developed some knee pain, people told me it was IT band issues, which are usually related to over training. So I took a small amount of time off to get over that, and then got back into triathlon training. This was the first time I would be able to start a triathlon knowing I could run the distance at the end.

Today

My first long run of this season's training was an hour. Four years ago I had trouble running more than two minutes straight. I've come a long way!