Ten Years Running
November 3rd, 2008, 11:54pm by Jake
Well, yesterday I ran the Santa Clarita 1/2 Marathon, returning to the old home of the Sung clan. After having run the marathon the last two years in 80 degree plus heat, I was relieved to see that the high would be in the 60s under mostly cloudy skies. I had a good run, finishing in 1:56:59, faster than expected considering my 5-month long taper. Good splits, too. I was moving at about 9:02/mile through mile 9, then got a little adrenaline and ran the last 4+ miles at about 8:30/mile. I checked the results, and I passed the 10 people finishing behind me after mile 5.5.
But seriously, today marks the 10th year since I started running regularly, on November 3, 1998. I think it was a 2.5 mile around the UCSD campus w/ my friend Jeff, and I was completely out of breath hauling my 195-pound frame around the wooded trails outside of RIMAC. Since then I’ve run/ ellipticaled/ sand duned/ the equivalent of 12,571.6 miles. That’s 2 full Gumps! Along the way I’ve run 18 marathons, 17 half marathons and dozens of other races. I’ve run with dozens of friends, and entered races with Mike, Derrick, Jeff, Keith H., Aaron, Jake S., Ken M., Jimmy V., Jon R., Joanie, Levis, Al, and probably some others that I can’t remember right now. I’ve run marathons stride-for-stride with Jeff, Aaron, Jon & Ken (twice). I’ve run inside & outside, in California, Hawaii, Utah, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada and probably a couple other states.
It’s been a long journey. I still have plenty more in my legs. Maybe I’ll see you on the road.