Sunday was a time for reflection. About a month ago or so I posted on Facebook that if I would have trained the way I do now back in high school I would have went on to a bigger and better school to run for rather than a small private Christian college. But hey I was able to run in college and I did set a record while I was there. I am still running now and that is all that matters. I guess it is that "could have, would have, SHOULD have" thoughts running through my mind lately. Natural talent can take you so far, but to be better you must hone that skill and train hard.
I was thinking about my journey on becoming a runner, it all started when I was little and did not have a bike so i had to run to keep up with my friends around town! When I was going into 6th grade I would wait for my brothers cross country team to come running through Horton and I would run with them through town until they headed back out of town and up to the high school. That was cool.
When I finally reached the middle school doors our school district decided to cut all middle school sports and they did. We had intramural sports that the gym teachers would do after school. It still was not the same. In 8th grade I practiced basketball everyday with the girls Varsity team and then took their stats at the games. I was still running to get places.
Finally high school came and I was able to run track and it was on a dirt track! I set many school records, our coach really sucked but he was nice and he gave us Snickers Bars when we did good. I did every event in high school except throwing the discus. I had to try them all and i was good at them all but I decided middle distance was my thing the 400 and the 800. Ran the 400 in 64 on dirt and 62 on all weather, the 800 2:30 on dirt 2:24 on all weather. Not bad for a kid who barely trained, but if I had trained hard who knows what could have become of it.
No I did not run cross country in high school I played basketball in the fall that was my first love. I did however run cross country my freshman year in college and ran in the low 20's. 20:12 was my PR in college. I Only ran one year. That's a whole another story for another time. My sophomore year I started training to do the Heptathlon in my senior year. Well I never made it to my senior year that goes along with the other story.
My running journey did not end I ran until about 21-22 years old, had my son when I was 23 and turned to bike riding then because jogging strollers back then cost around $200-300! SO I would put Joey on the back and away we would go. Then we had Abbie so Barry had to put a seat on his bike so we could do family bike rides. Back to school i went finishing up my degree, raising my kids and running went by the wayside for about 10 years. I started walk/running again and finally after Joe started in cross country in middle school and I heard that gun go off I was hooked and back to running and I have been running ever since and just started road racing about 4 years ago again.
So that is my running journey in a nutshell. I was also blessed to watch my son and his teammates grow from little middle school runners into State Champs in both Cross Country and Track. I will never forget in my sons Senior year they had just won the State Cross Country meet and he was an All State runner he was crying and thanking me for pushing him to run and in his running. That was an all time great "Mom" moment. What a talented group of runners!
So enough reflecting it is time to look forward and see what I can do in "master" years of running and hopefully I will have lots of years left!!
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