...Always a runner? (Rich's opening statements)
January 12, 2010 | 1:22 pm
I guess this is blog entry number one, so I'd better introduce the concept of this thing. From about fourteen to twenty-two years old I ran fairly competitively. The 800m was always my favourite event; I won the 800m at the 2003 Nova Scotia High School championships in a pretty deep year. After high school I ran five years in the CIS and won two national titles with the University of Victoria Vikes 4X800m relay team. After graduating, finding motivation to run was pretty tough for me. I "trained" for another year but the races just weren't happening. I came home for the bridge mile in 2008 and it was there that I finally realized my competitive days over the short distances were over. I just didn't have that killer instinct. When it came time to actually dig down and unleash, there was nothing there. I was happy to just sort of cruise into the finish shoot in 4:13, losing handily to Blake Boldon who is, admittedly, considerably better than me!
I have basically not run since that summer. I played around with it a little bit, but from January of 2009 until just recently, I probably only went for about 20-30 runs. And believe me, they weren't fast. Or long. This past October I decided it was time to leave Victoria and move back home. I figured the part of my life where track was the be all and end all of just about everything was over. It was time to find something else. It was then that I started coaching the Dartmouth Athletics group. Although I've only been doing it for a few months now, coaching the athletes has actually provided me with much more enjoyment than doing the workouts myself ever did. And surprisingly to me, it's almost as fulfilling. But even being around so many motivated young athletes, I wasn't getting out to run at all. I wasn't gaining much weight, but I was obviously getting into much worse shape. Probably the worst I've ever been in.
In late December I met with Luke from Aerobics First and we discussed an opportunity for me to start working at the Cole Harbour location. The hours would be such that I would still be able to make it to the workouts I was coaching and the job sounded right up my alley. So here I am. But we haven't reached the coolest part yet; I guess I'm running again. No, I likely won't step foot on a track. And if I do, it will be to run a 3K or a 5K. I won't be touching the distances that my whole life revolved around for the better part of a decade. I'll be doing it for...this is tough for me to say...fun. Luke and Matt Sheffield, the A1 clinic instructor have been incredible sources of inspiration for me to get back into it. Matt in particular is apparently not a big fan of taking no for an answer.
So I guess I'll be down in the Cole Harbour Place gym working out every day as well as running. At the moment the goal is simply to get back into shape and then try my hand in the local road racing scene. Right now I don't have a certain race in mind, which is strange because I have to keep wrapping my head around the idea of just running. For no concrete reason. There's no big race. There's nothing to peak for. Apparently I'm just supposed to do it because...well, I suppose I enjoy it! This is going to be a pretty interesting experience. I'll be jumping from 800s to 10ks and maybe, and I say this with a shudder, a half marathon.
I just stared at the words 'half marathon' for about three minutes, debating whether to delete them and pretend I never even thought them! But I'll leave 'em there. So basically, the meat and potatoes of this blog will be what I'm doing for training as well as what's going on in my head as I start approaching this sport from a completely different perspective. That shouldn't take long; there's rarely much going on up there! I will try to update weekly, likely on Mondays. Comments and questions are welcome, heck, encouraged. That way I'll be held accountable for what I'm doing!
During this whole thing I will be trying out all kinds of gear from Aerobics First. I'll also use this blog to talk about the stuff I'm enjoying training in.
So here goes...I guess I'm a runner again!
