While my pace and distance logged may have changed since I first started considering myself a "runner" years ago, running has always been a constant for me, a way of pushing thru life’s curveballs.
Upon graduating from college in 2010, a bright-eyed, optimistic post-grad ready to take on my first apartment and my first "real" job, I was also fortunate enough to experience my first real heartache! Fortunate in the sense that, rather than wallowing in self-pity, somehow I decided this setback was the perfect opportunity to put the "1/2 Marathon Training Guide" I'd flipped past in SELF magazine to the test. I signed up for my first half-marathon (the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon) and used training as a distraction to keep me focused on moving upward and onward.
"Why I Run" by Jeff Burger
As a Charm City Run Training coach, Charm City has asked me to contribute to their training website blog. So, this is the first of what I hope will be many installments. In my attempt to keep you reading, I think I have to tell you a little bit about myself. Most of this is not an attempt to brag about my running, but it is more an illustration of what training properly can do for you and to illustrate how personal running can and has to be. And, because I think blogging has to be somewhat personal, I will get to how running has changed my life. I have been a long distance runner since about 2005. I got into long distance running by accident, which is to say my wife (girlfriend at the time) invited me for a long run and, like most men, I figured it would be easy, so I went along. A few miles in, I threw up….several times. After several years of running sporadically, I reluctantly agreed to go for a 7-miler with a friend. At the conclusion of this run, I experienced the “runner’s high” for the first time in my life. Within a year of this run, I signed up for and completed my first half marathon and my first marathon. I’ve run races ranging in distance from 5k to 50k (31 miles). I’ve begun and finished five marathons, bettering my time by more than 35 minutes and now have a PR of 2:53:19. Like most runners, I know all of my PR’s…but, let’s face it, marathons are sexy and most people care about marathons, so I will spare you the boredom of my other race times.
