on running

Sometime during my senior year of college, a friend challenged me to run a half-marathon. As someone who enjoys new experiences and a little competition, I accepted, exercised for a few grueling weeks and finished the first of what would turn out to be a whole career of races.

Eager for another challenge, I picked up a book about people who run 100-mile marathons. “That's impossible” I thought, but I was intrigued and felt that if I could run a hundred miles then I could do anything.

First, I needed a plan to lean against and hold myself accountable. So, I signed up for my first full marathon, found a training guide online and pinned it to my wall.

Every morning when I woke up and every evening before I fell asleep I'd look at that plan. After each run I'd draw a thick sharpie line through that day. It was this constant reminder to shape up that gave me motivation as the thick sharpie strikes crossed out more and more days.

Eighteen weeks later, having completed 72% of my training plan, I ran my first marathon. The difficulty of this stage in my journey caused me to think about how a 100-miler was roughly equivalent to running four marathons in a row and I almost gave up. Instead, I signed up for another race and kept going.

All in, I prepared for nearly four years - 850 total hours spent running more than 5,500 training miles. When race day finally came, it took me almost thirty hours to finish. And while I may have walked the last ten miles, I did it.

I used a paper training plan for every race I ran, all of which I still have. They helped me stay disciplined by reminding me what I wanted to achieve and how far I had come. I worked a full-time job but found time to run. I went out with friends, but only after finishing my run and always while thinking about the next day's run. I learned that when you want something, you find time for it because consistency is the key to growth.