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I started running on a team 21 years ago when I joined my middle school cross country team. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. The only reason I joined the team in the first place is because I only have one kidney and my mom was afraid of me taking a kidney shot while playing on the football team. I loved baseball, basketball, and football back then and fell into running by chance and eventually grew to love the sport of running as well. I enjoyed the camaraderie and head to head competition that the sport had to offer and also liked the fact that on race day I was the only one that could control whether I succeeded or not. Over the years running has taught me great values such as hard work, dedication, patience, and leadership. It also opened doors for me that normally wouldn't have presented themselves such as going to Marquette University on a running scholarship and meeting my wife Jen on the team.
Over the past five years I transitioned away from running and into the sport of triathlon. At the tail end of last year I decided to give myself a break from endurance sports because my life seemed a little out of balance and we had our first baby on the way. Recently I have had the itch to run again. I miss competing and running offers a way for me to compete locally without having to train countless hours. I don't have ambitions to break any records or see what my max potential is with the sport. Those years are over for me. I'd like to get to a level of fitness that I can compete at the local 5K races and be in the mix for the win. I really just started back running about three weeks ago so I'd like to build a solid foundation of easy running over the summer, fall, and winter to build up some durability and enjoy the process of getting fit again. I don't plan on spending more than 10 hours a week training so I'll have to be efficient with my time. Right now I'm training about three hours a week so I've got about 7 more hours to give.
Some things that I'm looking forward to are the simplicity of the sport of running. For training you just lace up your shoes and go out for a run. The only equipment needed are socks, shoes and shorts (no shirt required). You don't need to drive to a pool, prep your bike, etc. You can run from any location at any time.
I also miss the purity of the sport. When competing there is no equipment that is going to make one athlete faster than the other and you there really isn't a way for your competition to cheat to beat you. You line up next to them wearing running shoes, shorts and a shirt and when the gun goes off you go at it. The best runner on that day wins. There's no question after the race about whether they had an advantage on the bike by drafting or if their equipment was better than yours. Everything is apples to apples and pure.
All that being said, my main goal is to start exercising again on a consistent basis. I'm in a competition with Jen and our friend Curtis to see who can build the biggest streak of running at least one mile every day. The idea behind it is that we most likely will end up running more than a mile once we get out there but at least running a mile a day will build consistency and durability. So far we are three weeks in and I'm hoping to have the streak going by this time next year!!
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