Why I Run - Part 1

For those of you who don't know, I am part of a wonderful online community of women who run.  We jokingly refer to one another as our "imaginary friends," although many of us have met in person and have the photos to prove it!  Here I am with Rebecca and Tessa, both of whom traveled to San Francisco to run the Nike Women's Marathon in 2010.  And yes, they ran the full marathon!  (I stuck to the half - 13.1 miles.)

When I was asked to share some of my background in and motivation for the sport, the first thing I did was go back and look over some of my posts to my "imaginary friends" on the topic.  Here's what I wrote in response to a survey in 2008 about how we all started running:

It started in 1979, when the requirement to pass freshman P.E. was to run three miles.  Up to that point, I had hated ALL sports because of the insults I had endured from bratty grammar-school boys who loved to mock my lack of physical prowess.  High school was different, though, because it was an all-girls school.  We trained by running around the back campus and by the time the end of the semester rolled around, I completed three miles easily.

I never stopped, but was more of a seasonal runner until 2000.  That's when I started running through the winter as well.  In 2006, I entered my first 5-K and have run six more since then.  I'm running my first half-marathon in October. 

I now teach at the high-school that gave me my start in running and get to work with two of the P.E. teachers who inspired me all those years ago!  The P.E. requirement now is to run ONE mile, and the girls bitch about it like there's no tomorrow.  That's when I share my story and they can't believe that I'm STILL running, and far more than three miles! 

So, those are the basics of how I started running.  More about why I keep running to follow!

Marathon Training:  Last week was a cutback week.  I ran a total of 37 miles = 7, 5, 7, 14 (long run), and 4.  I hope that adds up right!  I also did one cross-training day on the stationary bike, and I've been keeping up pretty well with my "minimalist" strength training.  (I do only as much as needed to run well because I find it boring!)

This week is going to be tougher, especially the long run, which goes up to 20 miles.  But, after finishing my 18 miler two weeks ago feeling pretty good the whole way, I'm not as intimidated by this upcoming run as I was by that one.  Of course, we'll see how confident I really feel about it after I finish!