My Running Biography (Part 1)

Instead of more minutiae regarding times, distances, and pace of various training runs, I suppose it's time that I jot down some of my running history, leading up to my short- and longer-term running goals.

I've been running, off and on, since I was 15. I read Jim Fixx's Book on Running way back when, along with Dr. Cooper's "Aerobics," and I figured running was something that a skinny kid with no overt speed could do. So, I strapped on my very thin-soled running shoes made by the Tiger company, which has morphed to the Asics company now (they looked like slippers with laces, but were the only "running shoe" available back in 1973 or so), and headed out to run. I ran too fast, of course, and timed every run with a stopwatch that I held in my hand. I didn't know distances, but I could time myself on various courses in my neighborhood. Each run was a race against yesterday's time. I only knew that running was a progressive thing, but didn't know anything about training in particular. So, after a few months, I grew weary of the whole exercise, and went back to more scholarly pursuits.

Years passed, and I found myself in college, 1977-8. My roommate was a former cross country runner from New Jersey, and he decided that we should get out and run. So, I got out and purchased running shoes (those very early waffle trainers from Nike, I think they were called the International), and we headed out. I had no stamina, but Rich had an idea of how to proceed, and off we went. We slowly added distance, and eventually were out on hour long runs, often at midnight, through the neighborhoods surrounding Emory University in Atlanta. It was fun, and we worked on running very quietly, making our footsteps as silent as possible as we ran. That was actually good training, because quieter footfalls meant less jarring impact with the ground. From the Nikes, I moved to the old blue New Balance 320's, I think, with the world's worst heel counter, but they were really comfortable shoes. We lasted 4 or 5 months with our running, until the ice and freezing temperatures came, but it was a memorable time. I timed those runs with my regular watch, memorizing the time we started and then heading out. I know it seems impossibly quaint now.

In the summer of 1979, I took up running again, on my own this time, partly as a fitness thing and mostly as a mental thing. The progressive training took me on a journey of self-discovery and increasing fitness as I reclaimed myself after a bit of a bad patch in life. The first runs were brutal, maybe one telephone pole. But after a few weeks, I was covering a few miles, and it became a habit. I ran my first race in there somewhere, a local 10K race. I kept running, fairly consistently, through the rest of my college days, going through more brands of running shoes as my favorites were discontinued, and had some good race times. I still wasn't running much past an hour on my longer runs, but it was a nice outlet.

After moving to Dallas in 1982, I continued to run, entering a bunch of races there. I got the marathon bug, but after much scheduling on graph paper and writing down schedules leading up to various Texas marathons, I never was able to get much past a 15 mile run on my own. I tried more New Balance, Asics, Saucony, Turntec, Brooks, and Nike shoes, as I kept searching for my perfect shoe. I bought my first running watch with actual stopwatch features, which was a revelation. Only 8 laps of split memory, but it was a huge advance over using my dress watch. I was a customer of the Phidippides Running Store there, interestingly enough. The advent of organized marathon training programs was still a good ways away, and although I read a lot on the subject, it was difficult for me to progress very well on my own. This carried over as I moved to Austin after getting married in 1984. I got my first running injury in 1983, IT band agony, after I got a little carried away with my pace and mileage as the weather turned nice that spring. It passed with time. Running was fun, still, as a solitary activity, but I was the only guy in my circle who was doing it, so it was a very inward-directed activity. I kept running logs, which was a neat thing to do, and read Jeff Galloway's Book on Running, as well as Runner's World (I was a subscriber way back when) and "Runner" magazine (since defunct). The thought of marathoning kept popping up, but again, training for one was just out of my reach.

Atlanta, where I moved in 1986, was another good running city. I ran some races, including some pretty fast times, but I was still self-coached. I got my first Timex Triathlon watch, which was so stuffed with features that it seemed like a space-age piece of technology. 50 laps of split memory! I had one of the first pairs of those wild Nike Air Max shoes (which later suffered an airbag blowout ). Finally, in spring of 1992, I received a postcard from the Jeff Galloway Marathon Training Program (no doubt, they had used a mailing list from probably the Peachtree Road Race 10k). The program sounded interesting, I already purchased my running shoes and other gear at his Phidippides store, and I had his book already (which was and still is a very fine introductory book on running), so I figured I'd go to the "Meet and Greet" and see what they had to allow. There were a lot of people there, way more than I had expected, and of course, Jeff G was there to do the speaking. The program sounded like something I could do, with its neat progression of longer runs, speedwork and hills, and the regular walk breaks promised to make the experience tolerable. So, I plunked down my $79 and joined up. The first group run was the next weekend, May 1992. I was at once excited and terrified, but I had made a commitment, so I had to follow through.

(To Be Continued)