I became a runner in 1977 when I joined the junior varsity indoor track team and realized immediately that I would never be a sprinter but I likely running distance. I ran the two mile indoor race, very slowly. I do not remember my finishing times, but I was almost always that last one across the finish line. I was 15, and liked running. The training runs included 6 and 8 mile loops up Heart Break Hill, and around the Chestnut Hill Resevoir on the Newton /Brookline line. I was a sophomore at Newton North High School, the running craze was huge, and my family would watch the Boston Marathon on Comm. Ave, near Braeburn Country Club, on farther along near the Newton City Hall.
My dad thought that sports would be good for his nerdy younger son (my brother was more of a natural athlete). I remember what a big deal it was when my dad brought me to Quin's Sports Shop (I think that is what it was called) to buy my first pair of running shoes. They were Addidas Country, white and with green trim, leather, and they cost an unbelieveable $30.00. I ran just one season of indoor track, but I saw myself from that moment on as a runner.
For the next 8 years I was a bicycle racer, and I lived on my bicycle. Then after college I did not have time to race, or train or even ride my bicycle. Flash forward and I am 30 years old. I am overwieght, and out of shape and on a day hike with my wife and our friends. We start running up and down the trail jsut goofing around. I looked my wife and I wife and said "I have to run. I need to buy a pair of running shoes and start running. But I don't know if I will be able to do this unless I try." We had very little money so the idea of buying a pair of running shoes to see if I could be a runner was a bit a leap.
Bang! I became a runner again. After a 15 year break I was running again. I ran most summers, and stopped in the fall when it got dark and cold. In 1996 I ran my first road race a 5K. My race goals were simple, do not finish last, and break the 10 minute mile. I was not last, and averaged a 9:27 pace.
In 1997 I ran two road races. In 1998 I ran 8 races and in 1999 I ran a dozen races including the Cape Cod Marathon. I thought that I would run one marathon a year but life gets in the way some times.
November 2002, I had just turned 40, my mother had died in September after a long battle with cancer, and again I was really overwieght again and out of shape. I had avoided a few of my favorite races that year because I did not want to know how slow I had become. My clothes were tight and my job was just burying me. My son was 2, and my wife and I were getting more confident in our ability to raise him. I decided that exercise (running and going the local Y) had become a priority. My wife and I had also decided to join weight watchers in January.
I started running again that December. With the support of my running friends and a desire to run a fall marathon I worked out pretty hard. Weight Watchers was a godsend for me. When I joined weight watchers I was up to 195 (I had been down to 170 when I ran the Cape Cod Marathon) I lost weight quickly. By February I ran a PR in a local 10 miler that I had been running for years. By the end of April 2003 I had lost 40 lbs.. I was running PR's in all of my races. Weekly speed training became apart of my regular work out routine.
It has been quite a ride for me. I qualified for Boston at Hartford in 2003 with a time of 3:09:36. I ran Boston last year in the heat in 3:20:42. I ran Hartford again in 3:09:01 (I went out hard and fast to break three hours, crashed and burned), and now I am running Boston again in 5 days.
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