I started running when I was 12 and a soccer player, inspired by a neighbor, Patrick, and by the gift of the a running calendar/log for 1980 (!). Initially I remember telling myself and others that it was to "get in better shape for soccer", but by the middle of my sophomore year of high school I preferred running to soccer, and was a better runner than soccer player, and was indeed, most likely at that point "addicted". I ran my first races in 1983 I think a 10K, then a 15K, the New Haven Labor Day 20K, the 5 mile Madison, CT Turkey Trot, while that fall as a junior I joined cross-country. I was an unestablished runner and unknown to the team such that they had me run with the girls (such an insult!, he said facetiously), but, for the first meet of the year, a large invite at Canterbury, CT, I was allowed to run with the big boys due to an injury to someone. I was top 5, maybe even 4th, I don't exactly remember. The rest of the year I was one of the top 4 on the team, only running 3rd or 4th man when we shutout the other team in duals. Otherwise it was this senior Jon and I 1 and 2. We took 1st and 2nd at a couple meets; the only race he missed, and I was number one man, there was an awesome runner on the other team, and I was 2nd again. I so much wanted to win! But, the team was the most important thing. We had the best year a Hopkins boys XC team had in quite a while, and we were looking forward to the New Englands. I remember coming home on the Friday before the meet, after the weekly pasta dinner, packing my bag with gloves and hat etc. as it was to be cold and maybe snow at the race; the coach called and said that we weren't running. Our athletic dept. didn't send in our entry and we weren't registered and they weren't going to let us run. I don't remember disappointment. I remember getting up the next day and running a 12 miler on the roads.
The next year I was injured most of the season, limping through only one race, and watching New Englands from the sideline as "student manager." It was the beginning of overuse injuries that caused me much frustration and time off.
It was because I never got my mileage up enough that I didn't run my first marathon until 2004; I eventually changed my running form and paid closer attention to my body, and finally was able to get my training to such a degree to feel comfortable starting the marathon distance: I stunned myself by running a debut 26.2 miler in 2:45 at Twin Cities the first weekend of October, 2004, and qualified for the Boston Marathon for 2005. I was on a high. Coming off that, I ran an amazing 10K, winning the inaugural Berbee Derby just breaking 34 minutes.
Boston 2005 was amazing. I had never run a race at noon, or that close to the middle of the day, and that was a challenge in itself. It was warm, 70s, and a beautiful day for the spectators, not for the runners. I neglected to wear sunscreen, as I never had to think about the sun before, but that was the biggest thing I recall from after: the sunburn, the nausea and the effect the noon-3 pm sun had on my body. I ran 2:53 and was 351st overall (out of 35,000?) and 7th Wisconsin runner. The last mile or so with the huge crowds creating walls around the course, and people yelling my name (I had written it on my shirt), that pulled me through; my legs were dead, my arms were the only thing keeping me going forward.
I was still on a high from that to run 4th overall and 1st in my age group at Stoughton, WI's Syttende Mai 20 mile race in 2:04, running completely by myself from mile 3 to the finish. Thank goodness for the bicyclist riding beside and in front of me guiding me, for without him I would most certainly have been off course.
Unfortunately, the high mileage caught up to me that fall, 2005, and the week before my birthday I suffered a stress fracture to my left foot. No running for 3 months. That eventually got me into cross training and something I never thought I'd get into: swimming. Amazing that.
So, I have been gradually able to work myself back into some modicum of shape, running much less, but with swimming and elliptical work running on the treadmill at incline. Spurred by this, I was intrigued by the triathlon. I actually got a bike started doing some specific training and signed up for a tri in 2006. The week before that race I narrowly avoided being hit by a car, but went head over handlebars and landed abruptly on my hip causing a hairline fracture. Back to square one.
It is 2010 and I am thinking cross-country. Less mileage, more strength. I love the fall.