Warning: Very long!
I have been an "off and on" runner (mostly "off") most of my life, who only got "serious" about it within the past couple of years. It's funny how I remember most every run I ever did, though, even the "isolated" ones. Something about that runner's high. :-)
Excepting those 50 and 100 yard dashes we did on Field Day in elementary school, my first real running experience was on the basketball team in the eighth grade. We would run up to five miles, often doing laps around the gymnasium. Talk about boring, and lots of turning!
In the early years of high school, I also did one or two runs with my older brother who was in the Navy. We did 3-5 miles, and the pace felt punishing, especially at the end. But my pride forced me to try to keep up with "big brother". I also recall doing one run with my older sister, but I was the "fast one" on this run.
I didn't run competitively in school, as I went to a tiny little podunk school that didn't have a track team.
My next running phase was in my early twenties. I went through a "health nut" phase where I was cycling, lifting weights, and eating lots of Special K and skim milk. ;-) I incorporated running into this regimen, and this was really my first "structured" running, where I ran specific distances, timed, with specific goals. I would usually only run 1-3 miles, though, and this phase was relatively short-lived before I lost interest and moved on to something else. I believe my best performance during this phase was a sub-7 mile, as I recall.
My next phase started in my thirties. My company participated in the Race for the Cure 5K. My wife, who worked for the same company, wanted to try it, so I agreed to do it with her. Neither one of us were in very good shape, though, plus we walked as much as we ran, and we finished together in 47:34. But I found the excitement of a big race to be addictive, and I had always wondered what I could do with running if I really worked at it, so I signed up for a couple more 5K's, and took them a bit more seriously. Still my times were just under 30 minutes, and I lost interest again after a couple of races. Did Race for the Cure again the next year, and again was just under 30 minutes.
But the Race for the Cure the following year, 2004, is when things got interesting, for many reasons. One, my wife had become a pretty serious runner in her own right by this point, and her enthusiasm was contagious. Two, due to improved conditioning from spending lots of time on the tennis court, plus utilizing some strategic pointers I had read, I was able to run a big PR of 27:04. But the biggest development was that, for the first time, I got beat my someone on my company team (which had been comprised mostly of older women up until this point). Somewhat surprisingly, this revved my competitive juices to a fever pitch. I resolved to become a "serious runner", and entered my current running phase.
I will never forget how intimidated I was the first time I ran a non-Race for the Cure race by myself. Unlike Race for the Cure, this was a small local race with only the "real" runners. I felt like a pretender. Even more so when one of these guys, who in retrospect was just trying to help, pointed at my tennis (not running) shoes and said, "You're not going to race in THOSE, are you?" But what's this? I finished 44th out of 101 runners? Real runners? Well, I was hooked.
I still wasn't much for training (other than my Wednesday runs with the Knoxville Track Club), but I "raced myself into shape", doing 35 races over the next eight months, sometimes two the same weekend, and sometimes even two the same day. =:-o I whittled my 5K race PR down to 22:30, and I did a time trial on the track one day in 21:45. I always considered myself a middle distance runner, but gradually branched out from the 5K's into 8, 10, 12, and 15K's. The 5K has always been my strongest distance, but I was able to turn in a 47:46 PR in the EXPO 10,000, good enough to qualify me for Time Group 1A at the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. Somewhere along the way, I became a recognized member of the Knoxville running community, nicknamed "Captain America" ("Cap'n" for short), due to my favorite red, white and blue singlet. I wasn't a front-runner, but I was one of those "real runners" who had so intimidated me a few months before. :-)
Then, just like a real runner, I got injured. Lack of flexibility and strength, combined with my out-of-control race addiction, led to knee pain. Between the pain and the heat of summer in East Tennessee, I had a tough five months of running. Surprisingly, I still did ten races during this timeframe, but the knee was a big factor in at least four of them. I also had one DNS due to the knee. But my times ballooned, partly from loss of conditioning and partly from high temps. I had the humbling experience of being beaten by people who had never beaten me before.
Finally this November, I felt like I was on the road back. The knee was better and the temps had cooled. I am now in the situation of doing the same races this year that I did last year when my race infatuation began, and I am happy to report that so far, every time this year has been better than the time from a year ago. I feel like the challenges of the summer have made me a better runner. I think my form is better, I'm more relaxed, and I'm having more fun. I am also no longer doing back-to-back races, and I have curtailed the races of distances longer than 10K. That 5-10K range is just where I do the best and have the most fun. I am also doing some strengthening and flexibility exercises.
Amusingly, I did NOT run the Race for the Cure this year, due to a nasty case of salmonella poisoning. But remember the guy on the company team whose victory started my racing addiction? Yes, I got a rematch two months later...and beat him my a good two minutes. :-}
If you ask me nice, I'll tell you the story about the only race I ever won--a 200-meter sprint across the Gay Street bridge. At night. While wearing a prison uniform. :-D (And no, I'm not making this up.)
Aren't you glad you asked me about running? ;-)
Unlike most runners, I have absolutely no desire to run a marathon. I did some 100K's as a cyclist back in my 20s, and got all that endurance racing out of my system.
Back in late 2004, I set the goal of running a sub-20 5K. I crafted a plan of doing this by March 2005, but quickly realized that this was a very unrealistic goal, so I pushed the date back to October. Over seven months I trimmed my time from around 27 to around 22, but then got sidetracked by the challenges mentioned in my bio above, as well as by upheaval on the work front. I am currently working my times back down, although I am still finding it challenging to find time to train consistently. Still, I still want to get that time under 20, and it would be cool if I could do it by this October.
My best overall placement in a race is sixth. YES, it was a field of 21--you got a problem with that? ;-) So improving on that is a goal, placing in the top three is a goal--and yes, before I die, I'd like to win one. (UPDATE: I accomplished the top three goal! I came in second overall in a mile race, January 2007, out of a field of 33!) I also hope to successfully defend one of my proudest running achievements, by repeating as age group champion of the Knoxville 5K in March. I beat 21 contenders in the inaugural running of this event in 2005, and placed 31st out of 458 overall.
I would also like to get my 10K time under 42, in order to qualify for sub-seeded status at the Peachtree Road Race in July. Not sure how realistic that goal is for this year, but maybe for next year.
I also want to get my 8K PR down to something more respectable. I don't know if the 8K's I've done are too hard, but my 41:42 PR doesn't "jibe" with my best times at 5K or 10K. It seems that I should be able to take a good four minutes off of that one. Maybe I'll do a time trial on the track. :-p
I plan on doing my first one-mile race in the next few months, and think this might prove to be my strongest distance yet. I have an "unofficial" (and somewhat questionable) PR of 5:59, so would love to beat that. It was downhill...but it was also the fourth mile of a 10K. ??? Or I could have lost the GPS signal on my Forerunner, I dunno.
Would also love to explore the shorter track events someday, but we don't have any for adults in Knoxville. Looks like I would have to drive to Chattanooga at least.
And I want to do Bay to Breakers. :-)