Thursday, February 11, 2010

I will run 500 miles and I will run 500 more...

I had a running milestone tonight. I logged 1,000 miles into my RunLogger App on Facebook. I started my runlogger on March 16, 2009. So in less than a year (11 months, it counts) I ran 1,001 miles. That is a lot of 3s, 5s, 7s, 8s, and 11s added up. I can't even save that much money. Perhaps I should start a saving account and for every mile I run a week. Wait, that's actually a pretty good idea. And I didn't think of it while running.

1,001 miles is a lot of blisters and one less toenail, it's four pair of sneakers, one bout of shin splits, seven new sports bras, at least twenty pair of socks, lots of soreness, hills, lost hair ties, race bibs, a repeated playlist that could be considered a crime against music....

1,001 miles is also my greenlight to start publishing my adventures in running in a little more depth than whiney facebook status updates. For some reason, 1,001 miles legitimizes what started out as a New Year's Resolution and soon became a personal passion. I can claim to be a runner with complete security now. Even though I've run two half marathons and am training for a third, running 1000 miles makes me an expert.

I have a great respect for (and minor obsession with) foodie blogs and also a few mommy blogs. These women share so much of their lives in the hopes of helping readers learn about nutrition, fitness, and food. I am inspired to share some of running ruminations and passion with others in the same fashion. I can't promise all entries will be winners or that I will publish regularly. But, when I have a great run or a bad run, if I make a new discovery or find a new trick, I'll blog it.

I have a lot of wonderful friends who want to run more (or at all) and maybe I'll have some words of advice or encouragement. I'm not athletic. I was never good at sports and believe me, I certainly am not built like a track star. But I ran 1,001 miles in a year. I'm sure there are others out there who have done more and probably faster. But this is my milestone, life, and passion and I'm going to share some.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Welcome to my blog: it's like my status updates, but longer.

For some reason, I can update my Facebook status hourly about completely trivial aspects of life without a second thought. But the thought of starting a blog of my own that I have to update regularily is intimidating. People will choice to read this! They're not obligated to because we're "friends" on a social networking site. With a blog, readers-strangers- actively choose to read your thoughts, opinions, experiences. The writer should be legitimate, and stuff.

But, if I can run six miles a day, I can write a blog. If I can sweat profusely from every pore in my body while on a treadmill in front of hundreds of people, I can do this blog thing. This "if/then" mentality has dominated my thinking and confidence since I started this adventure called running. Whenever faced with an obstacle or challenge that shakes my confidence, I remind myself that I can run.

And now, I can blog.

This is an experimental post. But upcoming blogs will feature the following:

a. It all started with an irrational fear of bears
b. Ankles and me
c. Why I can run 30 miles a week but think cereal is too much work
d. Righteous Running