Short version: Smoked for years. Quit. Tried running. Couldn't do 2 minutes on a treadmill without holding handrails. Got pissed. Slowly increased frequency and duration till I could run 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week. While running on a treadmill at the gym I started chatting with the guy on treadmill next to me. He said he was training for his first marathon. Hm.
I ran my first marathon in 2004. 4:23 and change. I was not satisfied. That was 51 marathons ago. I've run as fast as 2:59 and as slow as over 5 hrs. I've run challenging races like Grandfather Mountain and Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon. I've run multiple Sat/Sun doubles. I even ran a double triple (6 marathons in 9 days). My marathon experiences were almost always about more than just running. They were filled with incredible experiences and incredible people!
I've been a lot less active in the running scene over the past few years. There ya go.
be curious; not judgmental
I was never an athletic sports person. I was very skinny going up and did Karate and then became a skater. A few years back I was completely out of shape 175-180ish lbs, drinking way too much beer and eating garbage. Started having some mild anxiety issues out of the blue and decided some exercise might help me. I decided on my 31st bday June 5th (I'm 33now) I would try and this local 4th of July 5k. I built my mega mileage up to 3 whole miles. I raced that 5k trail run and ran a 26:00. I knew I was slow but I was completely hooked. I then got in a NRR accident that put me out of the game for about 5months. After I was able to return to running I slowly built up little mileage base but didn't do any speed work or anything like that. I signed up for that same race the following year and ran a 21:36. Also ran my first half that same year. I recently started doing a bit more structured training. I try to keep my mileage pretty low. My goals are to go 1:25 at this next HM in Nov and to go sub-18 next year.
PRs:----- 5k: 17:48 (2019) 5M: 29:36 (2020) HM: 1:24:37 (2017) Scheduled: ???
Former Bad Ass
Hi. I have been running since 1999 when my husband took me out for a run and 1/4 mile later I quit. Something like this:
I have always sucked at running, but I was faster before my asthma diagnosis (placed in by AG often, now never again). Now I just run marathons since they don't make my lungs want to die. First marathon was in 2010 and next week will be my 41st. Best has been 4:34 and if I had not repeated that PR in 2015, I would have thought my PR days are over.
I was T-boned by an asshole at the end of 2016 that caused a meniscus tear in my knee so I went through surgery in January and I'm still trying to get back to my older paces little by little. Hoping 2018 is a better year than 2017 (although I will still suck at running then).
Damaris
Runs4Sanity
I've been running, with goals in mind, since 2010. I've ran dozens and dozens of 5ks (road and trail), dozens or more of 10ks, 15ks (road and trail), over a dozen half marathons and 3 marathons. Hoping to get my 4th one finished next month.
I love running, whether on roads or on trails.
*Do It For Yourself, Do It Because They Said It Was Impossible, Do It Because They Said You Were Incapable*
PRs
5k - 24:15 (7:49 min/mile pace)
10k - 51:47 (8:16 min/mile pace)
15k -1:18:09 (8:24 min/mile pace)
13.1 - 1:53:12 (8:39 min/mile pace)
26:2 - 4:14:55 (9:44 min/mile)
I've been running, with goals in mind, since 2010. I've ran dozens and dozens of 5ks (road and trail), dozens or more of 10ks, 15ks (road and trail), over a dozen half marathons and 3 marathons. Hoping to get my 4th one finished next month. I love running, whether on roads or on trails.
Are you running Monumental?
Well, I thought this would be boring for anyone else to read, but I guess I'll do it anyway. I became a runner in the spring of my freshman year of high school, 1976. Our family had just moved to a new town across the state in Indiana. My first friend in the new neighborhood said that I should join the track team with him. So, I did. Two weeks later he quit. I was S-L-O-W...but I kept with it. I became a full-time runner...running on both the CC and track teams through high school...and over the summers just to stay in shape for public races. My best high school running achievement came my senior year in track when I clocked a 4:40 mile. I got some invitations from small schools to run in college...but I was nowhere near studious enough for college. I joined the Navy instead and served just over 20 years. Lots of my training miles were logged on the flight deck of a couple different aircraft carriers at sea. After a couple years in the Navy, at around the age of 22 or 23, I self-coached myself to a 4:15 1500m (about a 4:30 mile equivalent) in a small track meet on the base where I was stationed. Also during that tour I ran my third, and fastest of a dozen or so Marathons. At 24 miles, myself and the friend I was running with were on 2:54 pace. Then, about 200 yards past the 24 mile marker I got a hamstring cramp. I couldn't shake it and hobbled in at 3:09. My friend went on to finish in 2:54 and change. That would be my fastest Marathon. Also during those years I had also clocked several 5ks under 17:00, and 10ks under 34:00. I'd usually place in my age group, and sometime in the overall standings. I continued running, and loved it. But as I aged into my mid-20s (i.e. grew up physically) my body type changed from a distance runner's physique to something more of a linebacker. I was in good physical condition, not fat...just bigger. I went from being 6'2" weighing about 160 lbs, to 6'2" and weighing close to 200 lbs. -- a Clydesdale. I also became a triathlete at that time and dedicated lots of time to swimming and cycling. The swimming added considerable muscle weight to my upper body. With that extra weight, try as I may, there was no way that I was ever going to eclipse the above mentioned times again. I remember the last time I broke 18:00 in the 5k. It was the Festival of Lights 5k in Jacksonville, FL in 1998 (or 1999). I still would frequently place in my age group...in road races and triathlons.
These days...at almost 57 years old and having been running long distances for 42 years, most of those years with the bigger body...my lower extremities have lots of aches and pains from all the pounding -- feet, ankles, knees, hip, and lower back. Still, as always, I try to participate in a road race on at least a monthly basis. I'm lucky to hit 9-minute pace when I run. But I still love doing it. It's funny to think there was a time in my running life when I thought I could run 7-minutes miles all day long for the rest of my life. Now...I don't think I could run a 7-minute mile downhill. But, one of my mottos has always been: "The road belongs not to the swift, but to those who keep running."
Dan
Running since March 1976
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"I run mostly to see things, to explore places I don't know. And the places I do know,...then I get a sense of the weather, the shifting light, the seasonal changes; it can be pleasurable even when you hurl yourself into the teeth of nature." -- Ed Koren, Runner and Cartoonist for New Yorker magazine, 2006 interview for RW magazine
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The road belongs not to the swift, but to those who keep running.
When the going gets tough...sprinters quit.
I thought I responded to you last time you asked that. Sadly no, I don't even know the date of it but I've got a trail marathon November 4th, the day after I turn 30.
Maybe I missed it. It's actually Nov 4th too
Lol, I just looked both up. The trail marathon is Nov 5th, that Sunday. I'm going to be celebrating my birthday that Friday night so yeah I have no plans of attempting much Saturday lol.
delicate flower
Welcome, noobs.
I'm too lazy to type up a bio. I am a cyclist turned marathoner turned triathlete. I think most of the people here don't understand what the hell my workouts are half the time. I started running and racing in 2011.
<3
Welcome, noobs. I'm too lazy to type up a bio. I am a cyclist turned marathoner turned triathlete. I think most of the people here don't understand what the hell my workouts are half the time. I started running and racing in 2011.
Bricks, watts, ows, big gears, it gets pretty complicated. Hopefully no EPO.
I lost my rama
You're slipping OFR! You forgot the sprockets....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHZR9SA5pOg
3/17 - NYC Half
4/28 - Big Sur Marathon DNS
6/29 - Forbidden Forest 30 Hour
8/29 - A Race for the Ages - will be given 47 hours
I'm David. I'm in my late 40s, from Seattle, and started running a few years ago. I was always a short fat kid, but my wife got worried about the second one and made me get a checkup. Type II diabetes. So I started doing 30 minutes a day of cardio intense enough that I couldn't speaking in a conversational tone.
That was walking at first and then became walk/running, and now is running. I'm not fast-fast but considering how excited I was to hit a 13 minute mile, my current 8-9 minute pace isn't too bad. Unfortunately, I got all of my gain in those first two years where the weight fell off and now my aging body is slowing down a tad. Still I lift and cross train most days and every Saturday I try to do 7-10 miles. I'm sticking to races between 5k and half marathons because I'm terrified of injury but maybe one day I'll do a full.
Oh and if you're into Phish, yes I'm *that* zzyzx.
Super B****
Short version of a very long story... I think I started running at the end of 2010 ("think," because I didn't realize it was something I'd end up needing, it was just because "run a race" was on my bucket list), finished my first half marathon in September 2011 with a pelvis/sacrum that was stress fractured into a literal half dozen pieces, and have been running and breaking repeatedly since then. I do not like marathons, but I have run three of them because my bone doctor told me I would probably never be able to run one, so I had to prove her wrong, and then once I was already doing that, I had to BQ and run Boston... and I will be delighted to throw my marathon retirement party in 2018. If, you know, I'm not broken.
chasing the impossible
because i never shut up ... i blog
Barking Mad To Run
Remember exactly when I started running because it was 'tax day." April 15, 1983. I was in the Air Force, 29 years old, and stationed in Turkey. Oh, I did the Air Force PT stuff once a year, played some sports and stuff but I really wasn't a true runner, so that first run was the start of my Runner Life. Have been running ever since. Also got to run in a whole lot of unique places in the world, as I was overseas 18 of my 24 years in the Air Force; places that included Hawaii, England, Scotland, Norway, Greece, parts of Asia, and in Kenya and Somalia, to name a few. I never really kept a count on how many races I've done until I retired in Texas, but I'm sure my count is probably up there. Did 75 races last year, 70 the year before that, 63 the year before that, 58 the year before that, and so on and so on. This year alone I've done 66 races so far.
I've done one marathon - Honolulu - in 2000, and had to walk in the last 10 miles of that due to a vertigo episode. My friend, Karen Maas, would always tell me marathons are addictive and I'd tell her, not for me, lol. I've never done another one since then and have absolutely zero interest in doing another one. Halfs I liked though. I've done 5 halfs. My very first was Disney World Half and had a blast with that. During my Air Force days I used to do some quite high mileage weeks, with a regular weekly long run of 13 - 15 miles and longer than that when I was training for my halfs and that marathon. Can't do that anymore or do those halfs anymore either now, since my arthritis flared up - have to do run/walk now, the nonstop running is just too hard on my joints - so now my running life is run/walk, with the longest distance for me being now about 6 miles before my back starts telling me it's time to stop. It's all good though; I just do my run/walks, do lots of races and take photos and do photo-reports, and am enjoying myself thoroughly in my 'golden years' of running. I'm 63 now so don't know how much longer I have - whoever does know? Some people can keep running right up into their 90s - but until it is time for me to stop, I will just keep on doing my own thing.
I know I've got a ton of lifetime miles - not exactly sure how many cuz during one of my Air Force assignment moves, I stupidly put my log books - yeah, you young whippersnappers, 'back in the day' you actually had to WRITE your mileage and stuff down - in with my household goods and that was one of the cartons that never showed up.
Close as I can figure it, in the 34 and a half years I've been running, I've accumulated around 40K lifetime miles. Not really a whole lot since I only had about 10 years or so of really high mileage weeks and since 2005 when my arthritis flared up, I really had to cut way back, averaging around 600 - 800 miles a year. It's all good though; as said, I'm enjoying myself.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt