"Find Your Strong"
KEVIN HENNESSEY
Why I run is no special reason, but I will list here se of my background and what I love about it. It all started about 8 years ago when a friend of mine ran their first marathon and qualified for Boston right off the bat! I, being a normal guy thought to myself, gee I can do that. Silly me.....I had never run before other than for sports and I was in terrible shape as well. I rarely went to the gym and hardly did anything when I got there to boot. With about 13 weeks before my race ( that I rushed to sign up for) I thought to myself, I better come up with some sort of plan. Just RUN, I said to myself and that I did, I would go out for about 6-7 miles each day at a moderate pace and do a long run on the weekends because that's what made sense to do. I had no running buddies, no coach or formal plan, I just ran. I also knew nothing about proper clothing ( I ran in a 100% cotton t shirt, lacrosse shorts and some racing flats) man was I off base on that outfit. Well race day came and went and I finished my first marathon about 35 minutes slower than a BQ. It was only later that day that I realized, " I'm hooked" on this running thing. I woofed down some Sonic cheeseburgers and immediately started looking for more races and training stuff. I was introduced to my now other running half Jeff, by my wife, and we hit it off. He made fun of me for wearing such baggy shorts and way too many clothes and helped get me into some running gear from Charm City Run, and we signed up for the Chicago Marathon. We came, we ran and shocker, we did not qualify again!!! Son of a b%^*#, I thought again Andy wife had the same thought so she signed my up for another race 5 weeks later since we had trained so hard. I showed up, put in some headphones and wouldn't you know it, I QUALIFIED..... Great I won a chance to run again? Wait what's the fun in that? But again I thought toy self in my inner voice, I'm hooked and I can get better. Since then I have runs many races, a couple Boston's, London, and even a 100 miler. I now help coach runners of all levels at CCR and love helping them to achieve their goals. I'd like to say I've " found my strong" because I went from a never ever ever run for fun kinda guy to now I train and run 7 days a week, a sub 3 marathoner, coach, enthusiast and better person deep down. If running were a person I'd love to say thanks and give them a high five, but that's silly, they aren't so I just keep on getting out there no matter what and keep trying to better myself and inspire others to do the same.
