One Mile at a Time

It feels so great to be running again, I can hardly believe that I stayed away so long.

A little over a year a go I was celebrating achieving my goal of dropping from 197 to 175 lbs through exercise and watching what I eat (not a diet by any means), I ran the largest 20k race in the US (finishing third to last in my age group), and I was feeling great.

Since then I’ve been using every excuse I could come up with to not stay on that horse:

* I was injured (true but not for a whole year)

* I had too much work to do (ditto)

* the demands of a family keep me from fitting it in (how is it that my wife can get up at 5am every day to fit her work outs in then?)

* blah, blah, blah. (Maybe you’ve been there)

Well since I’ve laced the running shoes back up three weeks ago I’ve:

* been feeling great

* got my energy back

* reduced my stress

* gotten some of the best sleep I’ve ever had

* been able to focus better at home and work

* had one person tell me I looked like I am losing weight

* rediscovered that “I’m a Runner” again

I’ll be updating my miles walked, ran and biked on the left side of my blog under “890 Progress”. I’m nearing 1,000 miles (the equivalent of driving from Des Moines to Washington, D.C.). I’m planning on participating in two races in the coming months so I’ll be posting on my training progress as well, with the big race being on my 40th birthday, Super Bowl Sunday 2008 in Huntington Beach, California.

Finally I want to give a special word of thanks to my friends Amy and Tom at Runners’ Lounge for encouraging me daily and being the voice of the running community.

I'm going to take it one mile at a time, enjoy every one of them and visualize myself crossing the finish line strong.

Man Running on Flickr by Sansartore

Finisher on Flickr by Sosidesc