Thousand Miles to Salamanca

My Thousand Miles Part 1

Background

As a teenager, I used to run. I ran almost every day through the perfect Western New York summers, the even more perfect falls and the bitter-cold winters. I did road races, competed in Cross Country, and ran the mile, two-mile and the half-mile. I wasn't a great runner, but I wasn't horrible either. My PR's were:

• Mile (1600m): 4:44


• Two-Mile (3200m): 10:45


• Half-Mile (800m): 2:06


• 5K: 16:45


• 10K: 38:00


• Half-Marathon: 1:41.26

Of course, at the time, I wasn't satisfied. I always thought I could do better. I didn't train particularly hard.

After I graduated from high school, I went off to college hoping to keep running. The first couple of years I told myself I would train hard during the summer and try out for the cross country team in the fall. Summers went by and I never ran. The freshman fifteen was added and then some, which for me was probably healthy: I weighed 130 pounds when I went off to college.

Seasons passed, years passed and the n ext thing I knew, something happened. Life happened. I quit working out, got a job, changed careers, went back to grad school, finished grad school and did some thinking. I weighed 200 pounds (see below), a full 70 pounds heavier than my high school weight.



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posted by Gray @ 8:19 PM