1995

I didn't intend for this to happen, but I guess it's sort of fitting that for my 100th post on this blog, I take a minute to appreciate where I came from. This is something I wrote on January 19, 1995, for a grad school class. I found it just last weekend when I was cleaning out stuff from my parents' house...

My father is a runner. I have often tried to become a runner, but eventually I forego it for another form of exercise. Last spring, however, I stuck with my running and it helped me become a mentally and physically stronger person.

I had been going through a time in my life in which I felt very weak. I took up running (again) and decided, this time, to make it work for me. I charted my running time and did strength exercises with weights. I would work a full day and then spend an hour at the gym each night. I watched myself in the mirror and adjusted my stride to make it better for longer endurance. I told myself, no matter how much it hurt, to complete my time goal each time I ran.

Soon, my workouts became something I looked forward to each evening. I bought new running clothes that just slightly showed off my toned body. I wore jeans that I hadn't fit into for years. My friends noticed my weight loss and I noticed my fit body. I felt great because I knew I looked better than I had in a long time.

As I continued to run, even after leaving my job, I felt as though I could handle any situation I faced. My running had given me confidence. Confidence in my appearance and confidence in my mentality. I felt fit and strong enough to face my new endeavors in life and be successful in all that I attempted.

This was referring to the time period that I worked in NYC for Time Warner and lived in Hoboken. I used to take the bus out of the city, get off at the Y, work out, and then walk the 10+ blocks home. By then it was about 8:30-9pm -- I'd eat a cup of applesauce or something light like that and go to bed. I started this some time about halfway through my year of working for TW. Funny thing is, I didn't remember how meticulous I was about the running/workouts until I read this. It would be a couple years before I even ran my first race -- the Nike Run for the Parks 4 miler in Central Park -- and then another 8 or 9 years of off and on running before I took my running seriously, trained for and ran my next race, and started distance running.