A photo from the finish line.
1998 Cross Country Season.
Once I reached high school, I joined the track team. I had an incredible coach at Chattahoochee High School named Coach Mike Morris. On the track team, I liked the challenge, liked running with other people, but still never really liked running. I didn’t go out and run for fun. I did track my first 3 years of high school and did cross country my senior year.
It’s really only within the last few years that I’ve actually begun to enjoy running. I mean really enjoy running. On the track team, I got so used to running short distances (my favorite event was the mile) that after college, when I went out to run, it was usually for 2-3 miles and I would go out and run as hard as I could. I didn’t like it. It usually hurt, was breathing hard, and couldn’t think of anything except for the pain.
That all changed when I began training for a one-mile race down Peachtree St in the fall of 2010. For training, I decided to do a few long distances for the purpose of making that one mile seem like a super short distance. On the first longer run (5-6 miles), I noticed that I ran as fast, if not faster at the end of the run than I did at the beginning. I also hit a point in the run where I wasn’t breathing as hard, my motion seemed to go natural, and I had time to just think and enjoy the run. And the best part, at the end of the run, I felt great.
Now, I’m try to push myself to longer distances. I love the runner’s high and I love being out in the city running and thinking. I find that I can usually solve a problem better when I am out running than when I am in front of my computer screen.
