Awakening
It all began in Fall 1997, my Freshman year at Freehold Boro High
School. I joined the Cross Country team to get in shape for basketball
in the winter, and baseball in the spring. I had no intentions
whatsoever of making running my thing. Well it turned out that I was a
pretty decent runner, made a lot of friends on the team, and was
actually having fun out there. I think what I liked most about it was
that success didn't always boil down to winning or losing (we had a
losing season), and you didn't have to be the natural athlete to become
a good runner (5'6 and 150 doesn't exactly scream runner...or really
any other athlete for that matter). I've always loved competition
though, and worked hard at everything I did. So what I quickly learned
in running was that no matter what, you were always competing, whether
it was against yourself, the stopwatch, or other runners. There was
always a driving force, and a reason for you to work harder, and that
hard work would eventually pay off. Well, I failed in my attempt to
make the basketball team, but I really wasn't too upset. Running had
gotten into my blood, and I just went straight to the Indoor Track team
to run some 1600s and 3200s. By the time Spring came around, I didn't
even think twice about joining the Outdoor Track team. I was hooked.
So after it was all said and done, I enjoyed 12 great seasons of
running in High School.
Slumber
College was a different story altogether. I wasn't nearly good
enough to run at any school, so I would have to do it on my own.
Well...that didn't turn out so well. To tell you the truth, I can't
even really remember how much I ran during those 4 years... I think I
started off with high hopes and ran a decent amount my Freshman year,
and maybe did a couple 5K races. But the rest of my time there,
running was just something to do to stay in shape, and it really wasn't
a big passion of mine. The one exception was the summer of 2004 when I
had an internship with Nike in Beaverton, OR. Being there totally
brought back my passion for running. To help, my roommate was also a
big runner, and there was also a big 5K happening at the end of the
summer, so I had a reason to run again. I wound up with my personal
best in a 5K up to that point, and it was a great summer!
Unfortunately, when I went back to school, I didn't continue on.
Reborn
And finally, we come to my current chapter. In June 2006, I moved
out to Oregon to start my Nike career. Not coincidentally, I started
my running career back up again. There's just something about this
place that makes me want to move my legs! I got onto a Hood to Coast
team that year and that was easily the highlight of that year. In
2007, I ran my first half marathon, and ran a variety of other races as
well. 2008 though was by far my best year ever. I set PRs in every
single distance that I've run, and I just felt great! However, after
Hood to Coast that year, I was pretty burned out, and took some time
off. After that, when I tried to start back up, I started back up too
quickly, and battled through injuries off and on. So 2009 was pretty
much a bust for me. Zero races besides Hood to Coast. That marked the
time for the start of some serious training for me though. I'm now
ramping up for a killer 2010. I'll be running in the ORRC 10K series,
and my goal will be to win the overall series. So far I've got 8 10Ks,
a half marathon, 2-3 5Ks, and H2C lined up from Jan-Oct next year.
Hopefully all goes well!
Thanks for reading about my running life!
