Humble Run-ginnings

Inspired by my 27th birthday two days ago, I decided to write about how and why I started running.  Plenty of people ask me, “So how did you start?” and it makes me chuckle to tell the story, usually in an abbreviated version.  Well, now I am going to share my full story as someone who came a non-running family.  Hopefully to remind people its never all glorious and literally anyone can run.  Anyone can surprise themselves.  Anyone can work hard and get better.  So here it is.

I played several sports growing up; volleyball, basketball, softball.  Those were the sports my parents played and naturally they were the sports I was better at.  I tried soccer and gymnastics and neither stuck.  I was destined to follow in my parents footsteps.  There was that one time in elementary school in Wisconsin, probably 4th grade, where I broke the school record for the half and 3/4 mile runs.  Other than my grandpa telling me stories of beating opponents in foot races, in combat boots, while stationed in Korea, I didn’t think we had any runners in the family and my performance was a fluke.  Sure I was quick up and down the court and fast around the base path but that didn’t equate to long distance running.

Then, along came junior high sports teams.  I played softball but my school in southern Ohio didn’t have a team for the junior high, I would have to wait until high school.  But I wanted to fill time after school and stay active in the Spring so I joined the track team.  I had a few friends who ran and convinced me to try it out.  My very first track meet, at age 12, my coach put me in the 200m dash, the shotput, and the high jump.  I was 4’11” at the time….I guess he just wanted to see if I had a natural knack for anything.  Well I threw the shotput once, it barely went a few feet, and I walked away from the event.  They called my name over the loudspeaker to finish out my throws and I just ignored them…nope…not happening.  Then, the high jump.  I barely cleared the first height after some of the girls from the other schools were kind enough to help me practice as I had literally never completed a high jump in my life.  On the second height I missed twice, hurt my back, and was eliminated…nope…not happening.  Finally the 200 and I don’t remember the exact outcome but I finished in the top 5 and went back to my coach and told him I would be running, no more field events.  So I ran on the 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams and ran the 200 for those two years.  After 8th grade track I thought I was done with running forever, it was only to fill the Spring void and once I started high school I would be playing softball.

Then comes basketball summer camp going into my freshman year of high school.  The varsity women’s coach at the time, Dean Thompson, came to watch us a few times and while we were running suicides, laps, and drills he apparently noticed something in me.  He told me he was going to call me “Rabbit” and that I should think about running cross country.  He saw a natural endurance in me and said a few of the basketball players would run cross country in the fall to stay in shape before conditioning started.  I protested but then Coach Thompson mentioned that more endurance might help me sit Varsity.  That did the trick!  I decided to try out this cross country thing.  For the first time in my life I started speaking in kilometers.  I came into cross country conditioning late and when you are running more than the length around the base path or the basketball court for the first time during humid southern Ohio August weather you get a bad first impression.  I wasn’t sure what I had gotten myself into.

My very first cross country meet was a Wednesday afternoon in August 2003.  At Manchester High School on the Ohio River.  I didn’t know anything about hydration or fueling.  My coach didn’t really either, God bless him but cross country was not popular in the Southern Hills League.  It was all about basketball and maybe soccer, so I think he coached out of the kindness of his heart.  That day I drank one Gatorade and ate the pepperoni Hot Pocket that was school lunch.  We got to Manchester and toed the line around 5pm and it was somewhere in the high 80s.  This was going to be my first full 5k.  I was terrified.  Well, about halfway through the race and right after my second time going up the brutal hill next to the football field I came to where all of the parents and “fans” were standing.  Out of nowhere I felt sick and started puking.  Pepperoni Hot Pocket everywhere.  I never stopped running, just turned my head to the left and let it flow.  I know I hit a few people’s shoes.  BUT, I kept going. I was too embarrassed to stop!  I made it through the rest of the course and crossed the line in over 26 minutes.  That is nearly a 9 minute mile.  I immediately regretted my decision to join the team.  But, I got a pep talk from my coach and Coach Thompson.  We talked about fueling and hydrating.  Most of the meets were on Saturday mornings so I wouldn’t have to deal with the same temperatures.  They convinced me to keep going.  And I got better.  I shaved almost two minutes off my time at the next meet and got down into the 22:00s to finish out the season.  I made the All-league team at our league championship with Coach Thompson screaming and cheering and running alongside me.  He got me into it and was there for me the entire season.  I ran at Districts and advanced to Regionals, the only girl on my team.

However, it wasn’t a fairy tale of being in love with running after that.  I played basketball that season and I did sit Varsity but I wasn’t really good enough to play much; my jump shot needed a lot of work.  But when cross country season came around my sophomore year I decided not to run because I used the basketball logic as an excuse.  “Well I ran and didn’t play varsity so why run this year? It won’t make a difference.”  I knew it was an excuse, I just didn’t want to work hard.  The first year was beginner’s luck but the second year would bring expectations and I didn’t want the pressure.  So I didn’t run.  And I regretted it.  My conditioning wasn’t as good for basketball and I honestly just missed running!

Bring us around to summer 2005 going into my junior year and I decided I was going to run for both the love of it and for the basketball conditioning.  I worked hard and got down into the 21:00s.  I earned 4th place at the league championship and again made it to Regionals.  (For anyone who realizes those times aren’t very impressive, my school had 400 people.  Our league was all small D-III and D-IV schools.)  I ran a PR of 21:05 at the Regional meet earning a place somewhere in the 30s, nearly 40 spots better than my freshman year.  It was during this season that I got truly hooked.  I knew I would be back senior year regardless of basketball, I had come to love the sport.  The competition.  The rush of toeing the line.  A team sport that still relied on individual performance.

My senior year I was the lone senior.  I had one junior, a few sophomores, and a bunch of freshman on my team.  I was the Mama Duck and I took my role seriously.  I loved those girls and seeing them improve.  I loved guiding them and motivating them.  I loved our pre-race routine and pep talks that usually involved me trying to make them laugh to calm their nerves.  For the first time while running cross country I had a full team.  I also propelled myself into consistently running in the 20:00s.  Our rag-tag team did something that Ripley High School had never done before.  I won the individual league championship and my team won the team league championship.  Then, we took it a step further and placed 4th at the District Meet.  We made it to Regionals as a team.  We put a banner in the high school gym.  That team created some of the best memories of my high school years.  My teams never won championships in any other sport, we never made it Regionals in basketball or softball.  That is when I realized I might have a knack for running and that it might deserve a little more of my attention and time. Not to mention I really enjoyed it and it would be a great way to stay in shape after the other sports were behind me and I went off to college.

I went back to the track team for my senior year as well.  I realized my future was not in softball and other sports.  By then I knew I would be attending Xavier on ROTC scholarship so I decided to have fun and run track.  I didn’t go back to the relays and sprints though.  I let my coach convince me to do what was best for the team; 400, 1600, and 4×400 or 4×800 relays.  And I loved every minute of it.  After getting a taste of the middle distance and having cross country under my belt,  I knew I would be running for a long time in life.  I knew it wasn’t just a fluke.  I wanted to know what else I could do and how far I could push.   I set it as a bucket list item that I would run a marathon one day.

Little did I know what else running would become to me, I have written about that, but this is what running was in the beginning.  In the Run-ginning.  For me the ‘how’ went from stumbled into it to chose to continue it.  The ‘why’ went from filling the time and making Varsity basketball to the rush of competition, the thrill of the race, and sense of team and shared suffering.  And here I am now.  So it doesn’t matter if you are a runner born and bred by run-loving parents or if you never played a sport in your life.  Whatever your reason is or was just get out there and do it and don’t forget where you came from so you can inspire other beginners.  And if you don’t run yet…get out there and create your story, create your humble run-ginning!

P.S. This might go without saying, but I have not eaten a Pepperoni Hot Pocket since August 2003.