Getting Started

I kept in shape through high school and college always being involved in sports and outdoor activities that kept me moving. But after college, my focus became work and family and the only sports related activity I routinely did involved sitting on a bench cheering for the kids.

In September, my kids (9 of my 11) started talking about running to get in shape for a mile race on the Friday after Thanksgiving. To get in shape we all started running a mile each weekday morning. Initially it was very painful to run even one 7 minute mile.

Sometime during November I realized that I was starting to enjoy it. My 40th birthday was on Thanksgiving, and I decided to celebrate it by running a 5k (with as many of the kids as possible).

Seven of us signed up and six ran (4 ran the 5K and 2 ran a 2K fun run.) It was a blast. I ran the first mile in 9 minutes with my 11-year-old, and then left him and finished in 23:54 (7th in my age group out of 40 40-44 year old men.
MALE Age Group: 40 - 44
1 xxxxx 42 Reston VA 19:10
2 xxxxx 42 Ashburn VA 20:48
3 xxxxx 40 Chesapeake VA 23:00

I was amazed that I could even place 7th. I realized that there were just no fast runners in the age group, but it was a lot of fun to compete and I decided to try to get faster.

Since then I have been running between one and three miles each morning and trying to push myself to get into shape. A few weeks ago I ran a flat 5K in 20:55. I mapped out a hilly 5K circuit and have been running it on Saturdays. Last week I finished in 20:47. Today I ran a mile 5:51.

My running goals for 2007 are to run a 5K in under 20 minutes and to run a mile in 5:30. Eventually I want to run a 5K in under 19 minutes and a mile under 5.

We will see how it goes.