Who can remember their first race EVER?

My first race ever was in 5th grade. It was a 400 in 1985 at a CYO track meet. I couldn't even begin to remember what the time was. We also ran a 4 x 1 and I think I long jumped at that meet too.

when i was 6 years old i ran a mile road race in 9:38

My first race was when I was in my mid-20s. I was racing a bunch of 8 year old boys around the altar. The winner got a tube steak and the rest the rest got, oh hell, they were ALL winners!

Sept. 9, 1987 2 mile freshman x-c course at Belmount Plateau in Phila. Ran low 13's if I can remember. I was only running for a week when our coach told us we were going to a meet. I never ran track before and never even heard of cross country. I was suprised when I got off the bus and realized there was no track. I asked one of the seniors where the track was and he laughed and said this is cross country. I was like, "I have to run across the country." I thought I was going to be the next Carl Lewis.

It was the 7th grade and the marathon distance(at the time for me) of 800 meters. No training whatsoever, I ran it and finish 2nd to last. Time doesn't matter because it was soooo painful I swore I would never run again.

I came back the next year(8th grade) and was leading the 800m for almost the whole way until some soccer muts overtook me on the last lap (200m grass track) and ended up finishing 3rd.

HS cross country in mid-september 1979. Ran around 22 minutes for 5k.

i was 7 or 8 and i went to a local 5k race in camp zama, japan, with my parents. i ran it and was proud that i did the whole thing without walking. i think i broke 30 minutes.

Fall of 1997, 5K JV cross country race, ran 28:18 baby. My goal in track next year is to have cut off 14:19 of my first PR

Freshman in HS (W. Hartford, CT) 1983, 2.7 mile campus fun run that the XC team did for fundraising. Since my best soccer skill seemed to be the laps we did before and after practice, I figured what the hell. No idea of time, but I was first non-xc and have never played soccer since.

Spring of 1979, I was in 4th Grade. It was "Field Day" at school and I signed up for the 600 yard run. The race took place on grass around the schoolyard and I came in 3rd place to a couple of 6th graders. The kid who came in 4th told me I bumped him going around a tree and he deserved the 3rd place ribbon. What a sissy. That was the day I discovered the value of giving a good sharp elbow to the ribs.

: )

DJK -

What highschool did you run for?

We called the front loop twice the novice course. I held on to that for a good 3 weeks before I was forced to run the varsity course, which at that time was only 2.9 miles.

somechik,

I ran for Father Judge H.S. in N.E. Philly. Graduated in 1991. Also saw your message about best places in philly to run, I lived right by the Holme Ave. entrance of Pennypack Park. What high school did you go to? I miss that 2.9 course at Belmont

The Pope wrote:

My first race was when I was in my mid-20s. I was racing a bunch of 8 year old boys around the altar. The winner got a tube steak and the rest the rest got, oh hell, they were ALL winners!

FUNNY AS HELL!! Now watch all the Catholics start bitching, as if you're the problem and not their gay priests.

DJK - I ran for Archbishop Ryan. Kind of ironic that two Catholic School kids post on either side of the post about The Pope's post. Anyway check your e-mail, we don't need to bore everyone by catching up on the board.

MINE WAS FROM THE SWING SET TO THE DECK, I WAS ONLY 4 YEARS OLD....AND LET ME TELL YOU I BROKE THE REST OF THE FIELD(my little sisters) MID-WAY(13feet) WITH A HARD SURGE.

sambo wrote:

"The JV heat of the 100m freshman year in a dual meet against a school for deaf kids...I got dead last & they couldn't even hear the gun. "

Wow, reading that made me laugh out loud. That is some funny shit. My first race was probably a YMCA 5k in my hometown of Evanston, IL in about 1985 when I was 7. My famnily "trained" by jogging around a couple of blocks around the house for a couple of weeks. I think my time was something like 39 minutes, but I don't remember.

My Sr. year in HS a friend of mine convinced me to go out for Winter track. I decided to do it because I wanted to get in shape. In the time between the end of XC and the start of winter track, there was some kind of school invitational XC meet. I went with the coach and a few guys from the XC team. Since I had never run before they put me in B heat, which I ended up winning and got this monster trophy. My time was better then our guys in the A heat, and they were all scared after that that I would kick their ass in the mile and 1/2 in track season. The coach, although glad to have another runner, was pissed because they had lost the league XC championships the last two years by like a point. Too bad -I was busy playing golf!

DJK, interesting, my first race was roughly the same day, Sept. 9, 1987, the "Constitution Day 5km" in Danville, Kentucky.

It was a hot and humid day, I didn't know what to expect at all, because I had only recently been timed for any sort of running.

I ran 5km in 17;44 in a pair of Saucony trainers, wearing a cotton t-shirt, glasses and gym shorts. I remember it like it was yesterday.

These days a 17;44 5km is a track warmup and it feels so much easier.

My first race of any sort was a BMX bicycle race in Reno in 1979, but I guess that we are only talking about running races here.

ah my first race was against 5 security guards at the local mall. I beat them all, after I gave them a handicapp. I was in a sitting position when the guard approached me at the book store. I bolted toward the exit. With three guards in the way. I stiffed armed one sending him flying into a rack of greeting cards. Broke one guys tackle by jumping it. The last guy was just in shock. I ran accross the street and looked back and smiled. That day I became a runner.