I remember the day I was first introduced to distance running. I was at school in my homeroom class; a fresh new sixth grader. It was early September, perhaps the second week of school. I was already overwhelmed at being in a larger school. The PA system cracked and popped to life and the pledge of allegiance followed by the morning announcements began. They started with the lunch menu and then got into the after school activities. There was soccer, inter mural flag football and band. Now there is no arguing that I am a naive person. It's just my nature. For the next part of the announcements I had to go down to the office after class just to make sure I heard the last part of the after school announcement correctly. They said stop by the office to sign up for Cross Country Running, you'll need $10 and a physical.
The thought of running across the country truly excited me. Though that fantasy was short lived as I quickly found out the following week when we just ran around the school yard that we were not going to run across the country. It didn't matter I was hooked. In all my time as a kid I had never run more than just down the block. Now I was going to be running miles. While that was "neat" it wasn't what really pulled me in. What really pulled me in was the other runners, my teammates. It was in that first year, in that first season I learned what kind of people runners were.
I never ran for competition, sorry coach. I ran because that's what this group of people I was with did. Running is what we did between the bus rides to and from the meets. In between the conversations of jr. high life. We ran, we encouraged, we laughed and we had a great time.
I knew I was hooked at our first invitational. It was at Troy Jr. High School. Because I was only a 6th grader I only got to do a boring mile around the soccer fields 2 laps, I think; however, the 7th and 8th graders got to go into Hammel Woods and run on dirt trails and through little streams and a "monster" hill. If I was going to see this hill I would have to stay in cross country and come back next year and I did.
There were 2 things that kept me in cross country from 6th grade through Sophomore year of high school (having to work ended my running career). One was the people. My teammates, no, my friends. Friends that didn't care where you finished, friends that cheered you on at every turn of the race. Friends that were always there for you. Two was the courses. I loved a new course, I loved the scenery, the woods, the trails.
I sort of got back into running in July of 2006 when a cross country friend sent me an email (which I still have the entire chain of them) inviting me to the Plainfield Harvest 5K. I ran 2 races the year after that and then it really started in 2008 I got my wife to join me for our first 10K race. We barely had enough training to finish a 5K. We both finished the race and we both loved it. We've been running fools ever since.
There are now 3 things I love about running. #1 is still the community. I love runners. 99.9% of them are good people, but while I've made a lot of new friends in the running world I really cherish my high school and jr high cross country teammates that still run with me today. It's a great group of guys that still motivate and support each other. #2 I still love the courses, while I have switched to more road style running. I still love running in new locales. #3 I love the way running makes me feel. I love the burn of a hard workout. I love the last mile of agony. I love the satisfaction of completing a tough run. I love competing against myself and improving all the time.
Yes, I love running and I hope someday I can be that 75 year old that can still turn in a 19min 5K.
