Introductions continued:

Day 2 - September 8, 2007

Hey, its officially a streak now - 2. After a late night of backyard camping, I still managed to get out for a short run this morning. It felt a lot warmer than yesterday, but still was a very enjoyable morning. There's really nothing special about this run today - other than being able to avoid a lot of very fast moving cars and trucks. I quickly remembered why I prefer to run early in the morning before the non-running world is beginning their day.

So with that out of the way, I thought I'd share my running history and how I reached this point in the journey. Growing up, running was just what I did - when I played, I played hard. School was a necessary evil of being able to play sports - it was the break time between football, basketball, kickball, and baseball. When I got to highschool, I played football for exactly 1 season and played exactly 2 plays all season. Apparently my 5'8", 105 lbs, was not what the team needed. So my sophomore year, instead of football, I went out for cross-country. Those first few pre-season training runs were pitiful. I'd run way to fast, exhaust myself, and have to stop. But, with the help of an amazing coach, I learned the value of pace. Going out for the team, I had no expectations of how successful I would be. When the first race came, wow did I surprise myself. On a very talented team, I finished 4th in my first race. By the end of my high school career I had worked up to the #1 runner on the team and earned all-State honors. I went on to run one year at the college level before my lab classes started interfering with afternoon practices. Without a team to be accountable to, my running career was put on hold for several years.

In 1999, I was asked to work with the high school track team and began running with the kids. Slowly I worked myself back into shape and started getting serious about running. I even ran a few local 5ks and did ok. But then I got the marathon bug. In November of 1999, I completed my first of 2 career marathons in a slower than expected, but respectable 3:45. Two years later I would repeat that marathon and lowered my time to by almost 15 minutes to 3:31. Some day I hope to run another marathon, but not this year.

So, I've been running consistently again since 1999 and have now logged over 11,000 miles in my career. Until the last year, I had been very active in the local racing circuit, and hope to return to racing form by next spring. I generally prefer the longer races as I don't have the speed of my youth. My favorite races are 10 milers and half marathons, but I still enjoy a fast 5K.

Over the next couple of days, I'll talk more about my racing and running goals and where I'd like to be on June 3, 2010, when these 1000 days are completed. Until then, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and enjoy the miles as they click on by. Thanks for checking in.

-Chris

Day: 2	Time/Date: 9:30AM 9/8/2007		Weather:Sunny, 75F
Run: Amicus 2 Mile	Miles: 2.0	Time: 15:08	Pace: 7:34 min/mile
Miles to Date: 5.4	Total Running Time: 0:41:47