Running History

Since this is the first post of my first blog, I thought I'd provide a little history. I ran cross country and track in high school but that was 20+ years ago. I was only as dedicated as a middle of the pack teenage boy would be and didn't really know much about running. When I look back upon it I don't think my coaches at the time knew much about running either. Although to be fair I probably just didn't listen to what they were telling me and only ran as much as I need to in order to get by. The years from high school to present were passed with sports and activity but not much running. About 5 years ago that a friend mentioned that he and his wife were running some road races. I thought that sounded like fun so I entered a few myself. For the next few years I played basketball 2-3 times a week and entered the occasional race on weekends. As I started to get into running a little more I added 1-3 miles after basketball and maybe a little weekend running. In 2003 I decided to train for and run the Mt. Rushmore International marathon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I debuted with a 3:57:58 marathon. Not bad, not great. I have since run faster and slower ones, the most recent was the inaugural Tokyo People's Marathon on February 18, 2007. I ran a PB in 3:18:13. Pretty good, but I think I can do better. You see I've only been running seriously for about 20 months since we moved to Tokyo. I had to give up my basketball playing and now running has taken its place. That mostly brings you up to date for now.