Since kindergarten, I have loved to run, not for exercise, just to race. I used to make my little sister and any neighbor kids I saw race me down the sidewalk...I would win of course, otherwise I wouldn't ask them to race me, duh. In 4th grade is when I started running in summer running programs through the parks and rec, I was a sprinter, 50 and 100 yard (yes, back then it was yards) dash, standing broad jump, bah ha ha, I am dating myself now, I know, I know.
Look at me go with my mini fro! It was the early 80's, don't judge.
Anywho, fast forward to High School, still a sprinter and eventually a long sprinter (400m is my luv). My running idol....
FloJo (Florence Griffith-Joyner)
Puffy 80's sleeves don't fit in the whole picture
Well, my track coach convinced me, after my freshman year, to go out for cross country because I needed to do something in the off season (I had no idea what cross country was and if he says it was going to help improve my running in track, I'm all over it...again, I had no idea what I was in for). So first day of practice we run two miles in the sweltering heat of August. I, of course, run as fast as a sprinter could run 2 miles, trying to keep up with the top runners on the team, why, because I'm a sprinter and that's what we do...obviously I don't really know how far 2 miles is in actual running miles.
What the h...e...double hockey sticks is this? My lungs hurt, I can't breathe, gnats are flying everywhere in my face-pretty sure I swallowed a mouth full and dust is flying everywhere from the guys in front of us kicking it up on the trails. Lawd Jesus, take me now! I realize this was a test to see who the varsity runners were going to be, as he called it "The Varsity Challenge" but geesh, what gives?!?
Side note: As you will soon find out in my blog, I am VERY competitive and it's highly unlikely I will back down to many challenges...outright challenges or inadvertent, they are all the same to me.
In case you were wondering, I ended up 3rd on the team that year and after I figured out how to run distance I became 1st runner on the team my Junior and Senior year (I can brag, it's my blog tee he he). In a nut shell, after high school, I quit running all together. I mean, where was I to go from there? I missed running to the core but all I knew was I came from a small town school where I was an All Conference runner in track and cross country but was too intimidated to run in college, no one encouraged me to do it (or go to college for that matter), so I did nothing. Fast forward 20 years, yes I said 20 years, I ran into an old friend from my high school track & cross country team, while riding the city bus of all things, and he mentioned how he ran track and cross country in college (wish that was me), had been road racing as an adult and coaching high school teams on the west coast...say what now??? I want to do that! And here I am today, coaching with that same friend at a local high school, and I am as happy as a clam. Still trying to figure out how to run distance like a real runner but I'm learning one workout at a time; one race at a time.
If you're still here reading, thanks for hangin'
J
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