I started running as a high school student. I guess you could say that began running distance out of necessity. As a sophomore in high school, I was on the "sprint team." However, during one of our track meets, there was a need for someone to run the 800, so the coach threw me in it. I raced with no preparation and exceeded expectations. My coach said that from now on, I will have to train with the distance runners—that's how it started in 1987. For years I ran off and on. My running usually remained more constant in the summers because I'm a high school English teacher at Ballard (Go Bruins!) When the schools were closed due to the pandemic, I began running constantly. As the pandemic came to an end, and things began to open up, I registered for and ran in a large number of 5K races. I progressed to 10K and 15K races, and I eventually ran a half marathon.
My favorite aspect of running is the constant opportunity it offers me to compete against myself; to beat my previous run times. Since running gives me the opportunity to compete with myself, it enables me to better myself and the mental toughness, the endurance, and the mental clarity that I gain from running shows up in every other aspect of my life. Although I don't live in St. Matthews, it is my favorite place to run. St. Matthews is an extremely runner-friendly neighborhood. I usually start my route in Seneca Park, and then I proceed to run throughout the St. Matthews area. When I run on my own, the 5K and the 10K are my favorite distances. The 5K is my absolute favorite because it is the foundational distance for every other distance, which means that I condition myself to manage a run using the 5K as my base. I then view every other distance as a series of 5K runs. When I'm running a 15K, for instance, I just tell myself that I'm running three 5Ks. It somehow makes the longer runs even more manageable. I guess my advice for other runners is embedded in the idea that one must discipline oneself to manage a race. It is necessary to manage one's pacing, to manage one's breathing, to manage the course, to refrain from exerting too much effort early in a race, to properly manage the hills during a race, and to never judge a run by the first mile. First miles can be deceptive. The first mile might be hard, and the subsequent miles might become easy, or the first mile might be easy, and then the subsequent miles turn out to be hard.
I enjoy the River City Races not only because they are well-organized, and I have met a lot of people through participating in them, but also because they occur frequently enough to give me goals for my weekly running. When I know that a River City Race is on the horizon, I begin to run with the goal of performing well in that particular race in my mind—it gives me a reason for getting out of bed in the morning.