I used to like running as a kid, but did poorly on the cross country team in high school. I think I was overtraining, and having asthma didn't help. I gave up after a year or so.
By the time I graduated from college, I had grown out of the asthma, but I was seriously out of shape. I started running again in early 2002 to lose weight and to prove I could run long distances. I ran my first 5K road races that year.
In 2003, I ran several 5Ks with the running team from work, and ran my first 10Ks. The running team gave me extra motivation to train. 2004 was another year of 5Ks and 10Ks, and I started training for the Disney Half-Marathon in January 2005. I had a ton of fun there.
I put a little more effort into my 5K training in 2005 and had a good season (for me... I'm a pretty average runner). In June, I started training for the Richmond Marathon in November. My goal is to keep running, all the way to the end. With walk breaks. :-)
Sabino Canyon Sunset Run: my first official run, 7.4 mi, hope to finish in 45 minutes, but 50-55 is more likely. I'm working on longer, higher trail runs and plan to do formal trail runs, and ultra 50ks and 50mis soon enough. The snow is probably gone on Mt. Wrightson, so that will be this month or next. For first attempt will probably just stick to easier(longer) Super Trail: 16 miles round trip and 4000 feet elevation gain/loss, based on what I've been doing, should take about 3 hours total. One goal I have is to figure out how to run long distances around Tucson, on dirt, but without having to rack up too much vertical over say 50 miles.