People always ask me, "How long have you been running?" Truth be told, I'm sure that I hit the ground running once I was released from the womb of my mother and have not stopped since! My mother frequently teased (more like complained) that I was a child who never stopped. She told her friends that I was such a mobile child! Walking at 9 months old, and constantly on the move after that.
Running and being an athlete was something that has come so naturally to me. I taught myself how to ride a bicycle. Yep, I was fortunate to have a neighbor named Faith who had a two wheeled bike that I coveted and an unlocked garage ... don't worry, I didn't steal the bike. Faith said that I could borrow her bike anytime, I just had to put it back. So I did. I taught myself how to ride that bicycle in less than an hour, and I know that I rode her bicycle more than she ever did. The only thing that I regret about teaching myself how to ride that bicycle is how I remember the look on my father's face when he saw me riding a two-wheeler ... I believe that he wanted to be the one to teach me how to ride that bike! But me being as tenacious and stubborn as I am, I couldn't wait for him, I was going to do it myself. I'm still like that to this day ... tenacious, stubborn, strong-willed, self-motivated, self-directed ...
Organized running came to me in the fourth grade. Junior Olympics! I'll never forget how I had to beat all the girls in my class, then all the other girls in the fourth grade to make it to run in the Junior Olympics. I really had no clue what was happening, I just remember that I was FAST and that I got to run on a really cool track at Burroughs High School! And so my running career officially began. I ran track in middle school at Aliamanu Intermediate School, then came high school cross country and track at Radford High School, both in Hawaii.
After high school, I ran for recreational and fitness purposes only, and it began to taper off to the point where I would only run sporadically. You could say that I took at 10 year break. It was only after one of my trainers, Pete, talked me into running the Wharf-to-Wharf in Santa Cruz that the interest sparked again. Mind you, I have never really quit working out, running was just not part of my workouts. So when I seriously returned to running it was slightly painful ... Thank God for muscle memory. My muscles remembered how much it loved running!
Today, I still run for my own personal sense of satisfaction. I am in no means fast, but I can endure. I have found that I love my Nike+ iPod, Fleet Feet saved my feet, dri-fit feels good, and that half-marathons are a perfect running distance. I laugh at myself as I talk to myself during the first two miles of any of my runs - those two miles are the most difficult for me. I have learned that it takes sheer guts to run a full marathon, and that it sucks big time when you hit "the wall!" I have learned that sunblock and hats are my new best friends. I love running with my friends - physically and virtually.
I know that I won't be breaking any records, therefore my goals are different, and simple. With each organized race that I run, my goal is to better my times. My goal is to get faster. I run to stay in shape, to work off frustration, to burn calories that I should not have eaten, and to burn of excess energy. I run because I actually like the runner's high. I run because I like to know that my body CAN do it as "old" as it is, and much better than most of the young'uns out there! I know that all athletes run ... it's a great adjunct to all of my workouts! I run because I am Row., and I am strong, and crazy, and I just love running. I believe whole-heartedly that anyone can do it. It's not about how fast you are ... it's that you're up and out there doing it! If you see me on the road ... don't be afraid to honk and Holla!, then get outta your car and come with me!
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