A Year of Running

Last month, when entering a run in my running diary, I noticed an anniversary was approaching. One year ago today, I put on a pair of crappy sneakers and set out on a run. It was a Thursday morning, and I did a three mile loop in 45 minutes. My doctor had told me that I could afford to drop 20-pounds, and I thought I’d do some running in addition to the weight training I also started doing.

I hadn’t run since high school, at least not without being chased. I had done a few 5 & 10ks, and my longest run had been a 10-miler around the Newport Beach Back Bay. I read Jim Fixx‘s book, The Complete Book of Running, and shared with my father an idea that maybe we’d do a marathon one day. But that dream got shelved and forgotten for 25 years.

But a year ago, at age 43, I took up running again, and a year later, I’m still at it. Time to reflect, why have I stuck with it and what good has it done me?

Keeping a running diary has played a very major role in my running. I was fortunate to find a great Mac program, TrailRunner, for logging and mapping my runs and maintaining a diary. I recommend it highly to anyone. Not only is the program great, but the developer is very responsive to help requests and is constantly improving what is already a great program. And it’s because of that diary that I can report that in the last year I’ve headed outside to run 123 times, and covered a total of 652.45 miles. I also recently added a Garmin Forerunner 305r to my running gadgets, and it does much to feed my tech geeky need to track every step.

I read somewhere that the difference between a jogger and a runner is the ‘entry form’. I’ve certainly found that a looming race provides much needed motivation. In the last year I’ve run two 5k’s, a 10-miler, two Half-Marathon’s (1,2), and last November in Richmond, completed a Marathon with my friend Jay. The picture above shows us running in the final mile, joined by our kids. That was definitely a highlight.

I’ve been chased by big snarling dogs in Vermont, and out-paced by my boss in NYC’s Central Park. I ran to the top of the hill in Kitty Hawk that the Wright Brother’s launched their gliders from, and the country roads of Central Illinois. I’ve run along the shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, and Cherry Creek in Denver.

I lost the 20 pounds, and two toe nails (they came back, hopefully the weight won’t). And for every time that I find myself asking what the hell I’m doing, lifting legs that feel like sandbags, there is usually a nice Forrest Gump moment to capture the quiet peace and beauty of just running through your surroundings. It took until last year for me to figure out what IS chasing me… age. Hopefully my running will keep me just a few steps ahead of it.