my first real run I laced up some cheap runners and ran down my rural road and tried to make it a few light posts. I don't remember the date but it was 21 years ago. As I continued to go farther, I also use to take my car out on routes and count the kilometers ticking over my odometer.
I try to pay attention to the scenery especially when I am struggling. I live in a rural town in Eastern Colombia. I have never lived in the mountains before so i am fascinated by the ever changing landscape and vegetation on my runs. My most recent and best find.... I 'found' a dog we have a called Lucky. He now has made a home here with us and comes on all my runs with me.
I can't believe I forgot the most important thing found on a run. My kitty Teddy. I was running at the state park where I run a lot in June 2020. A black kitten the vet later said was about a month old was dumped on a trail along the river. It turned out a day before some friends who walk their dog there had found another kitten in the same spot. That kitty, likely Teddy's sibling, did not make it. Teddy saved herself with her loud meows. You may have gotten some glimpses of her on the zoom calls with her big poofy tail! She looked like a little Teddy bear. Hence her name. My forest kitty.
My first run was 10 years ago this April. I had recently moved from my hometown of Colorado Springs to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my first job in journalism and I was still adjusting to my new life. I lived across the street from a multiuse trail next to the Arkansas River and one day, I just got the urge to try running. I wore Converse-style shoes because I was clueless about running shoes and I can’t remember how far I ran but I continued running a few times a week, and about a year later, discovered trail running at the nearby Turkey Mountain. I didn’t have any pull towards racing until around 2020/2021, a few years after moving to Arizona and discovering the trail and ultra scene here, so my first race ever was the tough Tushars Marathon in 2022! I made the shift to trails and never looked back but I will always remember my first run fondly.
Thank you! It’s a brutal course but very beautiful, I’d highly recommend it if you ever get the chance, and someday I hope to do the 70K or 100K there. I’m actually signed up for the marathon again this year because it falls on my birthday and I loved the race so much!
I don’t remember my first real runs other than they were when I was a freshman in high school. I had just moved to Colorado and joined track and cross country to make friends. Running has been my best friend ever since.
The other day I was running on Wilson Mesa when I saw something out of place on the road. It was a Phillip’s head screwdriver! I was so excited because I’d been needing one, actually! They always seem to disappear from our designated tool drawer. So I kept it, ha! Major trail booty.
Your stories about how you started running are always especially meaningful to me, since my story is interwoven with them, but I’d never actually heard all the details about that first run of yours. I love it! My memories from Napa 30 years ago are: I wore a white cotton shirt, but cut off at the bottom so it wasn’t restricting, and a Texas Rangers baseball cap, which smelled vaguely like vanilla from the candle wax that had dripped onto the inside of its brim. That was back when GU was first getting started and I was too scared to try anything new in the race, so I stuck to Gatorade and water. I felt great until mile 23, when the course turned off Silverado Trail and I discovered we’d been enjoying a tailwind for all the previous miles. Then it sucked. 😅 I don’t remember much about the picnic at the winery with you guys afterward, except that it was a warm day and we could lounge around in the grass and sun. Good times, good memories. And then I remember cheering for you the following year when you crushed my time! Sub-4 in your first marathon was an indication that you’d go on to get really fast.
Gotta say, though, Jeff Galloway forgot to map the devolution from runner back into jogger, which is where I think I am now after 32 years in the sport. Still going, though!
Love it. I’ll never forget seeing you along the last stretch & at the finish, with the medal on your neck and Mylar blanket around you like foil. I had never seen those finish line Mylar blankets before. I also vaguely recall you said you deliberately woke up in the middle of the night before the race to chug water to hydrate?!
My BFF put the running bug in my ear around 1995. I was 36. She had run the Buffalo Marathon (our hometown) and suggested I could do it too. I wasn't an inactive person and occasionally ran and I had gotten into cycling in 1991. My occasional runs had no real purpose other than to get outside. So I don't remember a first run. I think I would run two or three miles on the occasional runs. But when I committed to run the Buffalo marathon, I too used Galloway's book. There was a quarter mile track not too far from my apartment where I'd do my occasional runs. I could know my mileage running that track. So I think I started training in late 1995 for the May 1996 Buffalo marathon. What I remember is cotton sweat pants and sports bra and shirts and socks. And those white Nike shoes with the red stripe, size 8. I wear size 10 now. And when it was cold, I wore a Boston Red Sox starter jacket. I remember my clothes being soaked and heavy. And I remember in particular a snowy half marathon on that track. Carving out the lane in three feet of snow and going around and around.
BFF suggested I run a local race to get used to people being around me as I ran. I signed up for a 10k Heart Run and remember being right in front of the ambulance sweeping the course. I was DFL. There was a get together in a school gym afterwards. I was wearing a Wineglass marathon shirt my friend had given me for encouragement. A man named Dennis struck up a conversation with me and told me about a group that went for long runs on Sunday's. So I started showing up for the long runs. It was hard because there were hills!! No hills on the track. I would always be DFL on the long runs but Dennis would always circle back to see how I was doing. I might not have continued showing up for the group run if he had not done that. He and another person from the group remain close friends. In fact Dennis and his wife will host me for my sixth Umstead next month.
I would finish the Buffalo marathon in 4:50 something in May 1996. The whole process of training for that first marathon changed me. I had never been a confident person, but I started holding myself in higher regard as the mileage increased. People noticed the change too. I was happier (though I still had a long way to go). I think it helped me weather a layoff which occurred in fall 1996 from the public radio job I had. For the following ten years, I would run multiple marathons a year. And then I found trails and ultras which led to a whole other chapter. I really can't imagine the shape of my life without running or the people that came into my life through running or the person I've become because of running.
The only thing I've kept that I found on a run is a little stuffed Bert doll (Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street). I didn't want to leave him there all alone on the street so he is on my bedside table. Otherwise I keep vivid memories of certain conditions that sometimes inspire some writings. I'll share one.
Be Still
l will not be discouraged by your perfect indifference
Warming to you as I go
Across the quiet expanse of snow and ice
Where are we headed today?
Down a well worn path to the past
To uncover and examine again some old wound
Or blazing new trail
Toward a blinding and glittery horizon
With all the unbroken promises and dreams
No, child
Stop with your fretting and questioning and dark and hopeful imaginings
Be still
Look how the sun dances through the trees
The many species of clouds in the sky
Listen to the wind and the songs of the hemlocks
Observe the tracks of four footed travelers
Who, in their wanderings, worry not where they have been or where they are going
Can you understand now?
Do you see?
Lay down the maps and the compass and the plans
There is no secret still held or puzzle to reckon
This, right here, right now, is all you really have
And one day, when the struggle and thrashing about cease
On a Friday in late September 1981, I stepped on the scale before work and was shocked that I was on the verge of hitting 200 lbs. Not sure why I was so shocked. I had done nothing to stay remotely in shape after having been a runner (sprints and 440….yes, this was before the change to 400m) in high school and my freshman year of college. About 7 years of inactivity resulted in an extra 25 pounds. So, at lunch time that day I bought a pair of Mizuno running shoes, some shorts and a shirt. That night, I “ran” the one mile loop formed by a couple streets in our neighborhood. It took me 13 minutes and I felt like I was going to die. How could I be this out of shape just a few weeks before turning 27? That day was the beginning of almost 43 years of running including many races of distances from one mile to a trail 50K and 3 days of TransRockies. I have had several coaches with Sarah being the latest. She got me through the Napa Valley marathon in 2022 (no where near as fast as she does it). There have been some breaks in those years to let injuries heal and to recover from ankle surgery. Now, I still run 3-5 days a week and do the occasional 5K. It is more for fitness and stress management/release. Almost always feel better after a run. I cannot count the number of business and personal issues that have been solved while on the road, trail or treadmill.
I love your running-origin story, Alisha, especially since I used to run Lake M at least once/week and do LMJS fourth Sunday runs sometimes. I wish I had known you when I lived there. Keep it up and fully rehab, then prehab to prevent an injury recurrence!
What a glorious story! ❤️
Thank you so much for reading, that means a lot.
it was a wonderful article!
What a great post!!! I’m so glad you left the spike. Great zen lesson. Hope to be right there with you running marathons at 75 🤣💪❤️
my first real run I laced up some cheap runners and ran down my rural road and tried to make it a few light posts. I don't remember the date but it was 21 years ago. As I continued to go farther, I also use to take my car out on routes and count the kilometers ticking over my odometer.
I try to pay attention to the scenery especially when I am struggling. I live in a rural town in Eastern Colombia. I have never lived in the mountains before so i am fascinated by the ever changing landscape and vegetation on my runs. My most recent and best find.... I 'found' a dog we have a called Lucky. He now has made a home here with us and comes on all my runs with me.
That’s great! And you’re the second person on this thread to rescue an abandoned pet mid-run, bravo!
I can't believe I forgot the most important thing found on a run. My kitty Teddy. I was running at the state park where I run a lot in June 2020. A black kitten the vet later said was about a month old was dumped on a trail along the river. It turned out a day before some friends who walk their dog there had found another kitten in the same spot. That kitty, likely Teddy's sibling, did not make it. Teddy saved herself with her loud meows. You may have gotten some glimpses of her on the zoom calls with her big poofy tail! She looked like a little Teddy bear. Hence her name. My forest kitty.
That's wonderful you rescued her.
My first run was 10 years ago this April. I had recently moved from my hometown of Colorado Springs to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my first job in journalism and I was still adjusting to my new life. I lived across the street from a multiuse trail next to the Arkansas River and one day, I just got the urge to try running. I wore Converse-style shoes because I was clueless about running shoes and I can’t remember how far I ran but I continued running a few times a week, and about a year later, discovered trail running at the nearby Turkey Mountain. I didn’t have any pull towards racing until around 2020/2021, a few years after moving to Arizona and discovering the trail and ultra scene here, so my first race ever was the tough Tushars Marathon in 2022! I made the shift to trails and never looked back but I will always remember my first run fondly.
Your first race was Tushars?! That's impressive! I love Aravaipa events but haven't done that one yet. Congrats on 10 years running strong!
Thank you! It’s a brutal course but very beautiful, I’d highly recommend it if you ever get the chance, and someday I hope to do the 70K or 100K there. I’m actually signed up for the marathon again this year because it falls on my birthday and I loved the race so much!
I once found $100 while running! I feel bad for whoever lost it though
I don’t remember my first real runs other than they were when I was a freshman in high school. I had just moved to Colorado and joined track and cross country to make friends. Running has been my best friend ever since.
The other day I was running on Wilson Mesa when I saw something out of place on the road. It was a Phillip’s head screwdriver! I was so excited because I’d been needing one, actually! They always seem to disappear from our designated tool drawer. So I kept it, ha! Major trail booty.
Thank you Jen! You could call it a screwy run perhaps? Great to spot you on Deep Creek today. Your training seems great these days!
Your stories about how you started running are always especially meaningful to me, since my story is interwoven with them, but I’d never actually heard all the details about that first run of yours. I love it! My memories from Napa 30 years ago are: I wore a white cotton shirt, but cut off at the bottom so it wasn’t restricting, and a Texas Rangers baseball cap, which smelled vaguely like vanilla from the candle wax that had dripped onto the inside of its brim. That was back when GU was first getting started and I was too scared to try anything new in the race, so I stuck to Gatorade and water. I felt great until mile 23, when the course turned off Silverado Trail and I discovered we’d been enjoying a tailwind for all the previous miles. Then it sucked. 😅 I don’t remember much about the picnic at the winery with you guys afterward, except that it was a warm day and we could lounge around in the grass and sun. Good times, good memories. And then I remember cheering for you the following year when you crushed my time! Sub-4 in your first marathon was an indication that you’d go on to get really fast.
Gotta say, though, Jeff Galloway forgot to map the devolution from runner back into jogger, which is where I think I am now after 32 years in the sport. Still going, though!
Love it. I’ll never forget seeing you along the last stretch & at the finish, with the medal on your neck and Mylar blanket around you like foil. I had never seen those finish line Mylar blankets before. I also vaguely recall you said you deliberately woke up in the middle of the night before the race to chug water to hydrate?!
Haha, if I did that I have no memory of it. 😂
My BFF put the running bug in my ear around 1995. I was 36. She had run the Buffalo Marathon (our hometown) and suggested I could do it too. I wasn't an inactive person and occasionally ran and I had gotten into cycling in 1991. My occasional runs had no real purpose other than to get outside. So I don't remember a first run. I think I would run two or three miles on the occasional runs. But when I committed to run the Buffalo marathon, I too used Galloway's book. There was a quarter mile track not too far from my apartment where I'd do my occasional runs. I could know my mileage running that track. So I think I started training in late 1995 for the May 1996 Buffalo marathon. What I remember is cotton sweat pants and sports bra and shirts and socks. And those white Nike shoes with the red stripe, size 8. I wear size 10 now. And when it was cold, I wore a Boston Red Sox starter jacket. I remember my clothes being soaked and heavy. And I remember in particular a snowy half marathon on that track. Carving out the lane in three feet of snow and going around and around.
BFF suggested I run a local race to get used to people being around me as I ran. I signed up for a 10k Heart Run and remember being right in front of the ambulance sweeping the course. I was DFL. There was a get together in a school gym afterwards. I was wearing a Wineglass marathon shirt my friend had given me for encouragement. A man named Dennis struck up a conversation with me and told me about a group that went for long runs on Sunday's. So I started showing up for the long runs. It was hard because there were hills!! No hills on the track. I would always be DFL on the long runs but Dennis would always circle back to see how I was doing. I might not have continued showing up for the group run if he had not done that. He and another person from the group remain close friends. In fact Dennis and his wife will host me for my sixth Umstead next month.
I would finish the Buffalo marathon in 4:50 something in May 1996. The whole process of training for that first marathon changed me. I had never been a confident person, but I started holding myself in higher regard as the mileage increased. People noticed the change too. I was happier (though I still had a long way to go). I think it helped me weather a layoff which occurred in fall 1996 from the public radio job I had. For the following ten years, I would run multiple marathons a year. And then I found trails and ultras which led to a whole other chapter. I really can't imagine the shape of my life without running or the people that came into my life through running or the person I've become because of running.
The only thing I've kept that I found on a run is a little stuffed Bert doll (Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street). I didn't want to leave him there all alone on the street so he is on my bedside table. Otherwise I keep vivid memories of certain conditions that sometimes inspire some writings. I'll share one.
Be Still
l will not be discouraged by your perfect indifference
Warming to you as I go
Across the quiet expanse of snow and ice
Where are we headed today?
Down a well worn path to the past
To uncover and examine again some old wound
Or blazing new trail
Toward a blinding and glittery horizon
With all the unbroken promises and dreams
No, child
Stop with your fretting and questioning and dark and hopeful imaginings
Be still
Look how the sun dances through the trees
The many species of clouds in the sky
Listen to the wind and the songs of the hemlocks
Observe the tracks of four footed travelers
Who, in their wanderings, worry not where they have been or where they are going
Can you understand now?
Do you see?
Lay down the maps and the compass and the plans
There is no secret still held or puzzle to reckon
This, right here, right now, is all you really have
And one day, when the struggle and thrashing about cease
You will come to know
It has always been more than enough
Karen, thank you so much for sharing those vivid memories and your beautiful writing. Good for you for sticking with it through the decades!
On a Friday in late September 1981, I stepped on the scale before work and was shocked that I was on the verge of hitting 200 lbs. Not sure why I was so shocked. I had done nothing to stay remotely in shape after having been a runner (sprints and 440….yes, this was before the change to 400m) in high school and my freshman year of college. About 7 years of inactivity resulted in an extra 25 pounds. So, at lunch time that day I bought a pair of Mizuno running shoes, some shorts and a shirt. That night, I “ran” the one mile loop formed by a couple streets in our neighborhood. It took me 13 minutes and I felt like I was going to die. How could I be this out of shape just a few weeks before turning 27? That day was the beginning of almost 43 years of running including many races of distances from one mile to a trail 50K and 3 days of TransRockies. I have had several coaches with Sarah being the latest. She got me through the Napa Valley marathon in 2022 (no where near as fast as she does it). There have been some breaks in those years to let injuries heal and to recover from ankle surgery. Now, I still run 3-5 days a week and do the occasional 5K. It is more for fitness and stress management/release. Almost always feel better after a run. I cannot count the number of business and personal issues that have been solved while on the road, trail or treadmill.
I love your story, Dave, and I'm glad I got to play a role in it as your coach during the later chapters. Thanks for reading and sharing! Keep at it!
I look for rocks in the shape of hearts along my trail
routes… always make me smile. I have taken enough pictures over the years to make a poster!
I love your running-origin story, Alisha, especially since I used to run Lake M at least once/week and do LMJS fourth Sunday runs sometimes. I wish I had known you when I lived there. Keep it up and fully rehab, then prehab to prevent an injury recurrence!