Well, How Did I Get Here?

If you’re reading this & don't know me, I don’t look like much of a runner, and in truth, I’m not. Aside from my sister Molly’s inclusion on the Holy Savior Track Team in the early 80’s (Just ask her about it. She’ll be sure to regal you in great detail about her accomplishments), my sisters & I saw running as a necessary evil. While we were all athletes, we ran solely to train and get in shape for other sports: field hockey, tennis, swimming, football, basketball etc. As my Dad, a Hall of Fame football coach so aptly put it when he first laid eyes on my newborn son: "Well, you don’t have to worry about him wearing the numbers 1 through 49 on the football field." Two events set me in motion to lace up my first pair of running sneaks at age thirty seven. One was the annual Run For Tony that takes place in my home town of Haddon Twp the last Wednesday of August. The course for this 5K goes right past my house & each year I’d sit out on the front lawn with a cooler of beer to watch the runners go by. After the last of the runners would struggle by, I would think "I should do that next year." However, this pipe dream was always quickly dismissed once the on-coming (and inevitably disappointing) Philadelphia Eagles season would start up. The other event was finding out my buddy Rick Haney had taken up running. First of all, I’m not trying to through Rick under the bus here (he’s a much better runner than I am), but Rick also doesn’t fit what most people think a runner should look like either. Rick explained he was just running for fun, and that the beer always tasted better after finishing a run. Rick wasn’t trying to break any land speed records, and would never be mistaken for a Kenyan, but he was giving each run his best shot & I envied his sense of accomplishment. These two events lead me to my first Run For Tony 5K at age thirty eight. My goals were modest: keep running & finish. However, once this race started, something unexpected happened: People started cheering me on. Now, any runner who has participated in anything from a 5K to a marathon will tell you how much this helps & means to them, and I couldn’t agree more. I just wasn’t prepared for how much it helped me get to the finish line. Another thing occurred to me after crossing the finish line at Van Sciver School in August of 2003: This was the first time somebody cheered for me since I last played football on Thanksgiving Day, 1983. Although I went on to play basketball (I was terrible & never got in a game) & tennis (who comes out & cheers for a tennis player?), it had been a full twenty years since someone I didn’t know stood on the sidelines & yelled "You can do it!" That was all it took & I was hooked. At first, I thought I’d just do the Run For Tony each year, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to try more runs of varying lengths. Since that August day in 2003, I’ve done several more runs, 5K’s, 4 milers, 10K’s 10 milers & a couple of half marathons. Along the way I’ve managed to stock pile more t-shirts than a Nike plant in Malaysia. After I saw my buddy Rob at about mile 18 in the 2008 Philadelphia Marathon, I knew I wanted to see if I could run 26.2 miles. This blog is more about "putting myself out there" to help me complete the required training. Let me explain. In college I’d study before a test because I was afraid of failing & I’d have to admit to my parents that my greatest accomplishment that semester was winning ten straight ping pong games at The Depot on twenty five cent Rolling Rock night. Fear was a good thing. Same principles apply here. By telling as many people as possible I’m planning on running the Philadelphia Marathon will help me log the required miles to avoid copping out when the going gets tough. Thanks for reading & stay tuned. 276 days to go. Pat