A Brief History - Running - Yesterday and Today

Pepsi Challenge 10km
Houston 1980









My social life in Houston revolves around a running club and many of my running friends visit this blog but I rarely write about running.... Anyway, after Helping out with the Houston Marathon, a week ago, I began to reflect on my years as a runner. The ups and downs along with the ins and outs so here's a general history of my running.

For whatever reason, as long as I remember, I've enjoyed running and have been inspired to do so. I don't know if it came from admiring my fathers running medals as a kid or if I was influenced by the publicity that popularized running after Frank Shorter won Gold at the '72 Olympic marathon ?...... Perhaps my grandmother was right when she said it was the splash of native American I inherited on my mothers side. Indians had been known to be good runners. I was never interested in short distances. I was more fascinated with the mental challenges faced by the endurance athlete. I was not your regular 10 year old and that's when I got serious..

In the 1970's AAU age group track was quite popular and for a kid interested in running there were opportunities to compete. There were a number of teams throughout Texas and Louisiana with regular well organized meets that drew sizable crowds. Since I grew up on the west side of Houston my parents signed me up for the Alief Track Club. I took to it instantly and was happy to be amidst other 10 & 11 years old kids that liked to train in the heat and humidity of a hot Houston summer. We were all happy to do so and I never remember anyone having a problem with it....We trained !.. Long slow distance, quarters etc..

I was serious about my running and at the age of ten I was running 5:50 for the mile. By the age of eleven I was running 2:29 for the half mile. I also ran 10ks and 5 milers on occasion. I don't remember doing any 5ks back then. Most road races were 10k..... I ran with the Alief track club until I was 12 or so. I then shifted my attention towards Jr High Track.

After watching Frank Shorter win silver in '76 I wanted to be an Olympian but as is the case with lots of young runners aging doesn't always work to ones favor. At the age of 11 I was a national caliber runner but by 8th grade I entered the tumultuous world of inconsistency. One week I'd race the mile at 5:04 and the next week I'd run a 5:34. I had become kind of a head case and lacked the guidance of a good coach. I became very disappointed and burned out on racing. My freshman year of high school I didn't join the team but I ran regularly. I had become addicted to how it good it made me feel and ran for the pure enjoyment of doing so.

During my sophomore year I rejoined the track team and quickly developed a stress fracture in my right knee. I was forced to take 6 weeks off and missed a lot of early season training. When I got back into it the coach recommended I race the 2 mile. Before taking my freshman year off I had been inconsistent but I was still considered a pretty good runner. The 2 mile would be my come back.

It was small meet after school so there really wasn't much pressure but I wanted to do well. When the gun went off I got a reasonably good start but things were not the same. I gutted it out, dug deep and ran hard. I put everything I had into it. Coming down the straightaway I was neck and neck with the leader as we stared down the finish line. People were lined along the track and yelling like crazy. I could see the finish tape. Harder I ran. Stride for stride, I broke the tape with my competitor. He had won but I still had another lap to go..... It was the most disappointing and embarrassing track race I have ever run. I improved little over the rest of the season and was denoted to Junior Varsity. I would not qualify for Varsity again until my senior year.

High school was not a good time for my running. I was a mediocre mid packer at best. My workouts would show promise but my races tended to be one disappointment after another. The most fun I had in High School was during Junior year cross country. There was a lot of team spirit and we all had fun training, racing, and hanging out together outside of running. A couple of the guys that year were really good. Sometimes I could hang with them in the workouts and afterwards they would shake their head and wonder why I wasn't racing a lot better... Truth be told high school was not a good time for me for a number of reasons. I ran with and a without the team more for my mental health more than anything else. Racing just didn't seem to be the reason. I should have been a much better athlete at the time but I lacked the guidance of a good coach and my mind seemed to be in a different place competitively.

By time I arrived at college I was completely out of the competitive thing. I still ran regularly but did not compete. During my college years interests turned more towards outdoor pursuits such as hiking, rock climbing and mountaineering. I had left Houston immediately after high school and lived in Colorado before moving to Washington for college. Right after graduating college I traveled overseas for 4 months and moved to Boulder, Colorado upon my return to the states.

It was in Boulder that I got interested in racing again. Boulder is internationally known as a place for world class runners to train and an easy place to find inspiration to run. There are loads of paved and dirt roads as well as miles and miles of mountain trails great for running. All of it amidst the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. Since I needed to work I got a job selling shoes at a running store. I quickly met other runners and became kind of obsessed with the sport. At 24 years old I was all fired up and decided to train for a race that always impressed me. The Pikes Peak Ascent. It was March and I had until August to prepare.

Boulder was great. At the time it wasn't uncommon to see running legends like Rosa Mota, Rob DeCastella, Frank Shorter, Steve Jones, etc out for their workouts. I remember a day at the track when a friend and I were doing mile repeats at 5:20 and feeling pretty good about. After our first repeat former 10k world record holder, Arturo Barrios, showed up and started doing repeats at 4:40. To top it off he was doing twice as many with half the recovery compared to what we were doing. Not to mention this all took place at high altitude. Whenever he ran upon us, we moved out of the way. The great ones always make it look so easy....

When summer rolled around I moved to Aspen where I obtained a job as a Seasonal Wilderness Ranger for the US Forest Service. The Job entailed living in the backcountry 4 to 5 days a week and hiking all day patrolling trails, doing trail maintenance etc. I also made time to run. It was a perfect situation to train for Pikes Peak. The summer proved to be awesome and I had an enormous amount of energy. I loved what I was doing. I usually camped up around treeline at 11,500 feet. From there I'd run up to passes at 13,000+ feet. On my days off I'd hike and run 14,000 foot peaks and didn't consider a climb a climb unless I gained at least 3,000 in uphill elevation. My activity level was a bit extreme but I was really into it. Needless to say I got in REALLY good shape...

When I lined for the Pikes Peak Ascent I was confident, fully trained and totally acclimated. The summit of Pikes Peak is over 14,000 ft. The race starts in the town of Manitou Springs and ends over 13 miles later after gaining 7,800 feet in elevation. Except for a short bit of road in Manitou its all on dirt and rock trail. Most runners compete in the Ascent which means once you finish you get a ride down the dirt road that climbs up a different part of the mountain. For those who feel compelled to run all the way back to Manitou there's a round trip race the next day. The ascent is basically a half marathon and the round trip is billed as a marathon...The day I raced was a perfect day for it. Beautiful weather and all. Everything went pretty much as I anticipated and I reached the finish in 2 hours 43 minutes. It was a time good enough for 21st overall. I was very pleased and inspired to do more with my running...

For the next four years I split my time between working for the Forest Service in the summer and living in Boulder in winter. I then moved to California for awhile before returning to Colorado and eventually Texas. Through the years I've maintained a consistent racing and training program that has earned me the following Pr's along the way. 5K – 16:10, 10K – 32:56, ½ Marathon 1:14, and Marathon 2:45.. At this point I'm fairly certain these will be my lifetime bests....

Running continues to be a regular activity in my life but racing has not been a part of the picture for the past couple of years. Racing is a funny thing. In my 33 plus years of running it has been both greatly important and greatly unimportant. For me the I find the most satisfaction in simply being able to run. To put on my shoes and move. To feel the blood flow and lungs breathe. To feel the stresses of life fade into a clear perspective of healthy body and healthy mind. The benefits and rewards are too many to express but well understood by others who have embraced running as part of who they are. The freedom of movement is a great gift and one I don't take for granted... Therefore I run and greatly value the gift..... Regardless of the amount or intensity, goals or no goals, racer or not, I'll always be a runner.....