Every Adventure Has To Have A Beginning...

Every adventure has to have a start, so this is my story of how this whole running thing started.

I wasn't much of a runner growing up.  I had done one season of track in jr. high school, and I had run a 5k with my dad, but nothing much more than that.  I just never seemed to get into the whole running thing.

When I went off to college I ended up making a friend with a guy who was on the cross country team for the school.  We began rooming together, hanging out, going on backpacking trips, and having fun.  After our Sophomore year he asked if I'd be interested in running on the XC team in the fall. Since I am up for about anything I said yes, and began my training.  One mile a day around the track and struggling the whole time.  Over the summer I took the workout schedule they had created for me and worked my way up to running 12-15 miles a day.  The season started and I was ready to be part of the team.

I had a great time being part of the team and ended up having a good season for myself.  My PR for the 8k was 32:14.  I wasn't the fastest on the team, but I had fun.  Our team won both our conference championship and were state champs for division 2 schools.

After the season was over I stopped running and got interested in all kinds of other things going on around our campus.  I was planning on coming back to be a part of the XC team again in the fall, but I ended up deciding that I didn't have time to be a part of the team again.  So, after one very fun and successful season of college XC I hung up my shoes.  I didn't even think about running again for 11 years.

In those 11 years a lot happened that really kept me from taking time to run.  I got married in 2002, graduated seminary with my masters in divinity in 2005, adopted our daughter in 2006, had a son in 2008, and moved probably 12 times.

It was October of 2009 when I heard one of my friends tell me about his 11 year old son who was going to be running a 5k at a festival in their town.  My wife turned to me and said if he could run a 5k we could (we are always up for a challenge).  So, with about 2 weeks training we showed up to run a 5k.  It wasn't really pretty, but we both ended up making it through the race.  In fact I ended up winning 3rd place in my age group (it was a small race).  This was all I needed to motivate me to want to keep running.

Since that first 5k I was challenged to take on the half marathon.  I read the book Born to Run and worked really hard on changing my running form so that I could get over and prevent some nagging injuries.  I began to run some trail races, have run some marathons and ultra marathons on the trails, and begun volunteering at a local middle school with their XC team.

Not sure where the next step to this adventure will take me, but I am enjoying the journey and smiling every step of the way.