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| My very first day of running December 6, 1978 |
Oddly, I’d actually RACED
before my first “official” day of running. The Wednesday before
Thanksgiving in 1978 was a day that was life changing. I had done well in
the President's Physical Fitness Test, but only in one thing...the 600 yard
run. Mike Granfield (the Billerica High School track coach) put on a
"Pie race". On a whim I entered the race which was
approximately a mile of cross-country running behind the Middle School with a
finish on the track. It was mid-30's with a steady 15 mph wind. I
wore tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt, and winter jacket since I didn't own
anything more appropriate for the conditions. I finished in fourth place
running 5:24. I was bitterly disappointed since the top 3 each won a
pie. Coach Granfield approached me after race and said, "I'll see
you at practice". I was surprised as I'd never considered running
and asked, "what practice?" to which he replied, "You are
running indoor track". I agreed despite having no clear idea of what
that meant. So, 45 years later I'm still competing and thankful to Mike
for convincing me to run. I've even won a couple of pies along the
way! On that first day of practice he handed out photocopies of a
training log and explained how important it was to keep track of mileage.
I took that advice to heart logging every day over the last 16,436 days.
The total of 158,501 miles works out to 9.62 miles per day. Unfortunately
I’ve also missed 2,032 days, which is about 44 days per year, or less than 1
day per week.
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| This would become a loop I'd do many times. |
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| 45 years |
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