Today I finished my 4th consecutive year of running (and walking). That's a milestone (pun intended) for this 53 year old because, even when I ran track in high school, I only ran 3 years and didn't run year 'round. (Article related to the picture.)
I began in earnest on 9-Jul-03 by walking 2.9 miles in 45 minutes. I finished the 4 years by running 7.3 miles yesterday in just under an hour and running 4.6 miles this morning in 40 minutes (intentionally slower). In those 4 years, I have run about 4,395 miles in 7 different countries (US, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Madagascar, Dem Republic of Congo):
2003: 557 miles (Jul-Dec)
2004: 837 miles (medial meniscectomy in Sept)
2005: 924 miles (achilles tendinitis in Feb)
2006: 1364 miles
2007: 712 miles (Jan-today)
In addition (and the reason this morning's run was intentionally slower), I ended the 4 years by beginning a 12-week training regimen for the Maymont X-Country Half-Marathon on 28-Sep-07 (there, I've committed publicly to doing it). My "that would be great" goal is 1 hour, 41 minutes -- approximately 07:45 mpm (minutes per mile), which is a pretty challenging goal for me. My "I would be happy with it" goal is just under 1 hour, 45 minutes or 08:00 mpm. Following a training program will be very different from my normal routine which has been to vary my distance and route for 4-6 runs per week but with the pace about the same for every run. So, we'll see how it goes. This is supposed to be a fun race to run because of the course.
I start year #5 tomorrow morning.
Run well, y'all,
Bob
Richmond
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