A couple of time when I was younger - back in seminary and briefly in my 20s - I did some running, but that was long before GPS tracking and my daily mileage was maybe one or two miles max. This time I had begin running just over 3 miles a day on my treadmill. My theory was that if I was ever to run a 5K (3.12 miles), I wanted my body to be used to that distance. It also made getting to my step goal of 10,000 steps a day much more achievable. But I had been doing all this on my treadmill.
A number of the students in my youth group who were runners urged me to begin running outside. "It's way better," they assured me. I resisted, until finally (five years ago today) I downloaded a running app for my phone, put in some earbuds, and gave it a shot.
So much better than a treadmill!
And the rest is history. It took a while to really learn to love running, but now, five years later, I've logged 5,454 miles and gone through 18 pair of shoes (mostly Saucony, with one pair of Brooks and a couple of Hoka One One's that I tried). I've run seven or eight 5Ks, one 10K, two half-marathons, and two marathons.
I wish I had been blogging consistently during those first few years as I remember a lot of life lessons learned while running. My best advice to non-runners is to give it a shot, no matter what age you are. I didn't start until I was 50 years old, but it's one of the best activity/habit/lifestyle/disciplines I've ever engaged in.
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