I'll say it now, for the first 20+ years of my life, I hated running. Hated it. Absolutely hated it. I would run when playing sports, but if I wasn't chasing a ball around, there was no way I was going to run. Sure I did for the mile run in gym class, but let's just say, those never went well. (To put it nicely, I can't run a mile that slow anymore.) There were times that I tried running in high school and college, but could never keep up with it (usually it lasted a day or two).
I can vividly remember a beautiful spring day my freshman year of college (2003). I got back from class and decided I was going to go for a run to enjoy the weather outside. I had spent the last five months dreading going outside, why not go out and get the most out of it? I put on some shorts and a t-shirt, laced up whatever I had for athletic shoes at the time and left Chadbourne. I went up Park St to the Lakeshore Path and headed down the path. I felt great. I soon came to realize that most of what was making me feel great was the enjoyment of the weather. By the time I got out to the Lakeshore dorms, I was nearly dead. Looking back, I had gone at most a mile, but I was ready to collapse. I managed to walk/jog (soft j) my way back to Chadbourne. I have no clue how I felt the next day, but I do remember it snowed. I took this as a sign that I wasn't suppose to run...
I don't recall any attempts to start running until nearly two years later. Early in the spring of my junior year at UW I finally became fed up with myself. I was overweight and just unhealthy in general. So I started going to the Shell (the UW Rec Sports facility a couple of blocks from my apartment) in the morning. For the most part I rode a stationary bike or an elliptical. Some mornings I would play basketball. Nothing overly strenuous, but it was a start. Somehow I got it in my mind that I wanted to run Crazylegs that spring. For better or worse, I got sick in late March, never started training, and decided not to run. I can only assume how different I would be right now if I had run that race. My best guess is that it would have scared me for life from running, as my hour of elliptical in no way would have prepared me for running 5 miles across Madison.
Luckily, in late April, the pretty girl that I first met in the dish room at Chadbourne and I started dating. In the short amount of time before she left to go back to Illinois for the summer, I learned a lot of things about Vanessa, including her love of running and karate. After she left, I thought about things and one of those random thoughts was along these lines... Well Chris, you can't really afford to take karate lessons... but you do know how to run... you may suck at it, but with a little bit of effort, it'll be something the two of us can do together... And so a terrible addiction was born.
The first run I did after that was a one mile run on a treadmill at the Shell. I had no clue how far I could run, no clue how fast I could run, and no clue where this was going to lead. I started the treadmill and set it to 7.5 mph. I figured I could do one mile at 8:00 pace! Come on Chris! You're a guy! YOU CAN DO IT!!!... Fail. I made it 1/2 a mile and I was dead. I took a minute to catch my breath and hopped back on. I can't remember if I made it the other 1/2 mile in one shot or if it took two, but I did finish the run. I kept running a bit more every day or two, very quickly passing any resemblance of a running streak I had before in my life.
A few weeks after all of this started, I visited Vanessa in Mt. Prospect and we decided to go for a run together. (This is the reason I started running after all right?) So she picked a trail for us to run on (Des Plaines River Trail), we headed off to a hotel close to the beginning of a trail, and took off. This is where you'll get a slightly different story from Vanessa than you will from me. Vanessa will say that I struggled through all of the ~20 minute run and that she drug me along. I will say that she probably could have pulled away from me at any point, but I didn't struggle as much as she says. I had enough left for a kick! I couldn't have been in that bad of shape! (Note this was approximately a 20 minute run that we probably went short of 2.5 miles...) Either way, one thing is for sure, we'll both agree this was the only run that Vanessa ever drug me through.
Today's run: 6 miles - 43:39 (treadmill at the Princeton Club)
Today's beer: Surley Bender - For those of you that don't want to follow the link, it's an Oatmeal Brown Ale from Surley Brewing in Brooklyn Center, MN. Very smooth, clean beer. (The extent of my adjective knowledge is very limited... sorry.) A little malty, but I like that in my darker beers. A little hint of bitterness from early hops, but I don't get much from any aroma hops they may have added.
- Skippy's Rating - 5 out of 6 beers in a six-pack (note: Bender comes in four-packs of 16 oz cans)
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