The start of my running

I had previously thought that running was a brain deficient activity and had made fun of many of my co-workers who kept asking me to do the corporate running series. I said it would be a cold day before I would ever run a race let alone pay for one.

Well when I first started it was a cold day in Chicago (December of 1991). I was at my in-laws celebrating Christmas and I needed some time alone. All I could come up with was to go for a run. Anything else I knew I would have company. I found whatever workout clothes I had, laced up my basketball shoes and headed outside. I started to run but since it was icy and snow covered I went slow. I discovered that my lungs didn't burst. It was so tranquil running through the forest preserve. I saw some deer and best of all no people. A runner was born.

When we returned to Minnesota after the holidays, I decided I would still try to keep running. The first thing I discovered is that the bike paths were plowed, after 12 years in Minnesota I had never noticed that they plowed them, kind of cool. The running continued through the winter as I discovered the wonders of Minnesota winter running. It's dark when you go to work and when you come home so you learn to run in the dark and watch out for black ice. I think I only wiped out 1 or 2 times which I kept thinking probably wasn't good since you dress about 20-30 degrees warmer than the outside. I also figured out that when it goes below Zero it's wise to cover the face and that mittens work better than gloves. It was also fun to see the looks I got from folks in their cars when the temp was -10 or so.

When I finally confessed to my friends that I had become brain deficient a couple of them (Scott H. and Cliff L.) convinced me to do a 5k in the corporate running series. It went great they paced me the whole way and I ended up running even mile splits of 7 min/mile. It was fun so I decided to do it again, this time they weren't there to pace me and I discovered that I could have used them as my first mile was a 6:15 and needless to say I freaked and struggled the rest of the way.

I continued to run and to race and then we talked about a marathon.........