Don’t let all the running posts {and Facebook, Twitter, and Daily Mile updates} fool you ~ I am not a natural runner, at least not when it comes to long distance. But I run. And yes, I love it.
It was an acquired taste, and it took me a lot of running to actually acquire a taste for it. My fortes during my high school and college days of track and field were the 100m dash, the shot put, and the discus {I occasionally took part in the 200m dash and the 4x400m relay under duress}. When I had to run my first 2-mile for the Army Physical Fitness Test, I think my first reaction was disbelief. Something along the lines of “You want me to run what? I don’t do the 1600m, that’s not my event.” My first 2-mile running time was rather disastrous.
So I did what any smart athlete would do when faced with a new event – find a coach. I had a couple of friends who were on the cross-country team and I asked them what they did when they first started, how they trained and how they built up their time. Not only did they tell me, but they were nice enough to run with me – even if running with me was just their warm-up for their longer training runs. I took their training to heart, and I ran. And I ran. And I ran. The next time I had to take the APFT, about six weeks later, I trotted in at 16:30ish, comfortably underneath the then-18 minute minimum. Six months later I ran it in 15:45. To my amazement, that became my usual average. A year or two after graduation, I was bringing it in at 14 minutes. I’d learned how to run.
It wasn’t until I started running longer races that I actually learned to enjoy running. I started to push myself, running 5Ks, then 10Ks, then the Army Ten-Miler. Then I skipped straight to marathons. I did the Marine Corps Marathon twice when I was in college and once when I was in grad school, ran the Seattle Marathon once, and ran the Honolulu Marathon twice. I didn’t do my first half-marathon until last year, when I ran the Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half just for fun, and in about three weeks, I’ll do another ~ the NYC Half Marathon in support of the Organization for Autism Research {if you’re interested in helping out, check out my donation page here ~ seriously, I just need 45 people to give $10 and I’m set! ~ and my article on my younger sister Karla, who struggles with autism and is my reason for supporting OAR}. I’m very excited to run this race, and I’m making a special t-shirt with a design by Karla to run in!
As a lead up to that, I’ve been participating in the Run Ranger Run campaign, a fund-raiser put on by Gallant Few Inc. to reduce veteran homelessness and unemployment. Ten-person teams join up and promise to complete 565 miles total in the month of February and work to raise money. Several folks in my department started a team and I joined up to help out, to motivate myself to get trained up for the half-marathon {because without proper motivation, I find it really hard to get out there and run in the cold and dark winter months!}, and to meet my 30 miles in 30 days goal from my 101 in 1001 challenge. Let’s just say I obliterated the 30 miles. As of today, I’ve logged in 79.8 miles for the team! We’ve only got 11 miles as a team until we reach our goal, and with everyone finishing strong, we should have no problem completing the 565 miles, but that’s driven me to set a new goal for myself. If I can do 79.8 miles in 24 days, what can I do in a regular month? Can I hit 100 miles logged in a month?? That’s the next goal!!
So I think it’s safe to say I’ve learned to enjoy running. I feel better when I’m in a regular running routine, I look better {my clothes fit better}, I have more energy, and I’m just all around happier. I plan on keeping it up as long as I can {though I do have to train carefully – I damaged my knee in an accident when I was a kid} and I have a feeling it’ll keep me around for a pretty goodly amount of time, too 
