...To the running blog. I'm chuckling because I don't consider myself a runner, despite the fact that I've run more than 400 days out of the past two years. The beginning of the blog is because I've come to enjoy reading others experiences and they've become quite inspiring (like my friend Runner Girl). The beginning of the run... that's a longer story!
Get ready: Two years ago I was facebooking with some friends from the distant past... one of my old buddies was looking for someone to run some crazy distance with him. I couldn't run 1/2 a mile, let alone anything with 'miles' after it. I know because I tried. 1/2 a mile of downhill running a few weeks earlier, and I had to lay down and catch my breath.
I woke up the next morning feeling pretty pathetic. I decided I would see if I had anything left in me or if I was hung out to dry. I drove across town to join a 3 mile charity run/walk. I got there just before the start. I was so nervous... standing around with actual runners. Gunshot. Go. I was pathetic. I had to stop at least a dozen times to walk. I gave up at least 3 times... but since the course was around a lake, I had to get back to my car somehow. Near the end of the race, there were many people encouraging me on; ringing bells and and calling out my number. If you're not a runner, this is new to you. It was for me anyway. I was a little embarrassed and perplexed at the same time.
I could barely drive home, I was so hurt. The next day I just ached in pain. Now comes the conversion... I wanted to run again. Pick a goal; faster, longer, with more grace, with less pain, just go. Why? I had spent the past 10 years sitting in offices and airports and getting seriously out of shape. Could I actually lose a couple of pounds this way?
Get set: I told my friend Dave about how it went and that I had run about 4-5 more times since then. I challenged him to run, any speed, for a full 30 minutes. He, like I, didn't fully understand how hard it was to keep going for any length of time as we've gotten a little older. He called me 45 minutes later cursing my name. We set a date and I flew out to NY and ran 3 miles with him and his wife. I was wanted to come back and enter a run with him so I signed us up for Sarataga's First Night 5k in December. Something came up and I couldn't get out there, so Chrissy ran with him instead. I think that ended up being for the better because Dave and Chrissy became running partners, which is a priceless training help.
Now something you should know about Dave and I. Since I was 14 years old, he and I have come up with plans to do just about everything, from biking across the US, becoming ninjas, and no fewer than 50 business ideas to revolutionize life as we know it. So of course, we needed to blow this out of proportion too. When the ice melted and we came up with the Dave 500. We would encourage each other by racing to 500 miles. At 3 miles-a-pop, this could take a while.
It wasn't long before Dave was way ahead of me. Work, blah, blah, some excuse kept me from running consistently. To catch up I started running a little longer. After a few months of consistent running, I thought I might be able to run a half marathon. Training and completed this put me ahead by almost 100 miles. As I recovered and fell back to shorter runs, Dave picked up the pace and started running 5 times a week between 5-6 miles at a time. At the end we were neck and neck. Dave won achieving 500 miles to my 496.5 by running over lunch. BTW, Dave's a pilot, so running during lunch for him involves a change of uniform and passing through security... twice!
GO! After completing my half marathon, I thought I was done with any big distances. I was talking to my son about it who promptly asked... "you did half of it?". No, it was a big deal... it's just a measure of distance... Wait a minute. Yes, I just did half of something and I think I can do more. For the next 18 weeks I trained for the Twin Cities Marathon. Training was hard and every extra mile was a battle. I was travelling to locations with impossible hills and always on the road. It seemed that every time I was going out for my long run, I had to call my wife to pick me up. The morning of the race, I dropped from 245 lbs to 210. I felt like I was in great shape, but I was short on training. Despite running up to 30 miles per week, I had only run 15 miles for a long run.
