The story so far...

Hello everybody. I've started a blog. I am an utter and total noob when it comes to this sort of thing. I read blogs all the time but I have never started one...until now. This blog is not to share my wit or knowledge with anyone...yet. Basically, this is just to give me a somewhat public kick in the pants regarding my running career. I'll be posting my weekly miles, race reports, etc. in an attempt to make this my 'accountability' partner in this endeavor.

These first few posts will most likely just be about how I got into running, where I'm at in my training so far, etc.

So without further ado, let me back up and give you my running history as briefly as I can (but since it's my blog I can be as long-winded as I want right? RIGHT?) UPDATE: Turns out I got very long-winded. What follows is just history that's mostly for my own benefit. Read on if you're interested.

My Running History - Part 1
End of my Freshman year in high school. The cross-country coach comes up to me after a baseball practice and says 'Hey I heard you're a good runner, why don't you come out for the cross-country team next fall.' No idea where he got that notion. My guess is that he was just fishing for skinny kids to populate his team with. So in August before my Sophomore year I went out for the first practice...WHICH WAS RUNNING 3 MILES UP AND DOWN HILLS AROUND A SOD FARM!!!!!!111. I had never run more than half a mile at one time in my entire life. I was able to hang with the seasoned guys for 1 mile and then walked it in for the remaining 2 miles. I was dead.

Next day, went to practice too sore to do anything and the coach says 'Mile repeats...3 of them'. I struggled as best I could through the first mile repeat. Then I went home. Just took off. Didn't want to be in cross-country anymore. Too hard.

Next day, I'm sitting at home after school in my room and my Dad comes in and says 'Why aren't you at practice?' I say 'Don't wanna do cross-country, not interested'. My Dad is generally a calm and gentle man; at times a pushover. This time, however, he put his foot down. 'You made a commitment to that team and you're at least going to follow through for 1 season. If after this season you're still not interested then you don't have to sign up for it next year.'

I share that story from my pre-running days because guaranteed I would not be where I am today if I had not had that conversation with my Dad that day (and I'm not just referring to my running career). I went to practice the next day and suffered through it. And then I started to get pretty good. My running just got better and better (naturally). I made very close friends with the guys on the team and ended up really enjoying cross-country throughout high school. In the Spring when baseball came around I decided against it and signed up for track instead so I could run the mile. Basically, when I look back at my high school days my memories are overwhelmingly flooded with cross-country and track meets and practices.

After high school I was able to get on a cross-country team in college (2nd fastest guy on the team).

After college I ran the Bloomsday run in Spokane, WA for 2 years (pretty big event) and did well and enjoyed it.

Then...nothing.

Got married, had kids, got lazy, got fat (not incredibly fat or anything; I'm a skinny guy by nature). In high school I can't quite remember how much I weighed but I think it was around 140 maybe a bit less (I'm 6'0" tall). Nowadays I hang out around 185 to 190.

My wife and I bought a treadmill a number of years ago and I would run on it occasionally but never more than 2 or 3 miles at a time. Was never consistent (except for 1 period of 4 months I ran every single day on it  a few years ago). I hated running on the treadmill and running outside was even harder! (I still hate running on the treadmill).

January, 2010 my family is over at a friend's house for New Year's Eve and he says 'Hey, you want to be a pacer for me at the Leadville 100 this year? You would probably need to run about 20 miles or so.' When he first said it I laughed it off as a joke. Then he said 'Serious'. I said 'No way man. I've never run more than 10 miles at one time in my life.' He said, 'You have until August to get in shape'. I said, 'Well, what the heck, let's do it'.

I did...nothing. I think I went out for a few 2 miles jogs around the neighborhood. I went hiking in a few places. My friend and I hiked up Pike's Peak in July of that year and it crushed me. When I got to the top (it's 13 miles up) I laid down and died. Could barely move. We ate some lunch up there and I said 'I'm going to need to take the train down'. My friend went to ask the train folks if I could get on and they said there was no room. There was no way around it. I had to walk back down. Of course going down is easier but it still sucked. Man did it suck. When we got to the car I was the most physically spent I had ever been in my life (and I went through Army basic training in my younger days). I told my wife I would never do that again (I went back and did it the next year in 2011 and would have done it last year if not for the fires).

After Pike's Peak I did...nothing.

Stay tuned for Part 2