Running: The Early Years

When I was young, I would often go to races with my parents and compete in the children's fun run. The distance was usually a 1/2 mile. I won a few ribbons back in the day. I'm not really sure how, but I did. As I got older, the distance increased to one mile. Let me just say, my first mile race might as well have been fifty! It seemed like I was running forever and the finish line was never going to come. But I eventually made it and started trading my mile races for three milers. If one mile felt like fifty, three felt like 100! In sixth grade I joined cross-country after I didn't make the volleyball team. That was the year I ran my fastest mile ever, 7:09. My dad always said he would give me twenty bucks if I could break seven minutes. I'm still working on that.

Three miles turned into 26.2 and now I'm going to bring it to an end at fifty. I'm definitely going to stop at that. I have no desire to go longer. Once this test is complete, I plan on going back to shorter distances. I do want to run the Boston Marathon and maybe the New York. There are so many great races out there. If I can find a place to train for the swimming portion, I wouldn't mind trying a triathlon. Basically I really want to push myself beyond just marathons. While I know finishing a marathon really is an amazing accomplishment, it just isn't enough for me. My husband thinks I should concentrate on bettering my times and not increasing the distance. Maybe so. I'm sure I'll be wishing I had chosen to go that route when I'm running a marathon distance every weekend for a month.