and what made you start running? Why do you continue to run?
and what made you start running? Why do you continue to run?
Age 2. It's what kids do.
I started running with my 7th grade track team because I sucked at every other sport. I was a huge sports fan from the time I was old enough to know what sports were, and dreamed of playing football or basketball. I had absolutely no natural ability for those sports, so the coaches did what they do with kids like me: they put me in the distance events with the track team.
I found I really liked it, despite not being particularly gifted at it, either. I continue to run as an adult because I still like it, plus it keeps me lean and healthy. I plan to continue to do it as long as I am physically able. It will be a sad day for me when I can no longer run.
It was a compulsion, started when I was a child in the late '60's. Doesn't seem to want to end.
Age 20. I was at U of O, freshman, late 70's, ran down the street one time to get to Mac Court and was winded. I told myself that I would never feel like that again.
Age 16 as a junior in high school I went out for the XC team. Prior to that I played soccer and hiked and climbed mountains.
My story is unlike everyone else's. I was 14. Maybe 13. I made no attempt to play baseball, football, or basketball. I had no desire to be on a school team. My friends weren't on any; niether were any siblings. I was the only one in my family to participate in any sport, and no parental pressure existed to do so. Running was no 'last resort'.
I also didn't see much reason to include the school in any of it. I never met the track coach, and he exerted no pressure to get me on his team. I accidentally showed up at a track practice - the only one I ever attended - and I knew 1 guy. 1! It certainly wasn't where 'all my friends' were. My high school running 'career' went pretty well, and I'm doing it 40 years later!
I did it two years ago because I knew I could take the pain. I was right. I meet a lot of cute girls along the way and ran faster than a lot of your school records.
Started at 20. Still going at almost 58 and no need to stop now.
Why do I run? Honestly I have no idea, I am still trying to figure it out.
I was forced by parents to do XC in 9th and ended up winning state as a Jr. Thanks mom I guess.
Started running a couple years back and haven’t stopped at all except for bathroom and food and occasional LR posts and sleep.
1977…22 years old. Holloman AFB NM.. while on leave back in Indiana, I saw a running magazine my sister had… and when I got back to base, ran from the barracks to the gate next to the golf course, touched the lock and ran back to the barracks….
im thinking it was a million miles ha
i wonder how far it was?..2nd greatest day of my life.
I moved to a new high school and our PE lessons twice a week were athletics in the summer term. We had a grass track. They drew it on the field in the spring. Anyway, we did the 800m and 1500m. There were complaints from parents about people having to run 1500m (yes, really). It is under a mile and people thought it was cruel. LOL. Anyway, I did the 800m and beat all of the boys but two. I won the 1500m. So I decided to join the after school athletics club which was once a week. There was a local town championships. They picked two people for each event from the school. I went to that and long story but I won the high jump :( and missed the 800m. So I went to the county championships in the HJ. I was 2nd. I don't like the HJ so after that I decided not to do the HJ but to focus on the 800m. We did time trials each week with the athletics club and it was fun setting goals and trying to break them. When it came to the summer holidays I decided to carry on running and I joined an athletics club (there is a club system over here, not so much a high school system for athletics). There was a 1500m open meeting (clubs) and I remember knocking 30 seconds off my 1500m in the first race!
1976, I was 10 years old and started running with my mom who was training for a mid-life marathon. Did a lot of jogging and a few 10k's. Quit at 13 to be a teen waster.
Fast forward to 2020. I had spent my 40's drinking whiskey, smoking cigarettes, and doing meth but had recently quit all that. Started running 1 mile a day with my son, and was struggling to run 10:30 pace. I'm still old and slow, but this week I ran 70.1 miles at a 8:54 pace without any trouble, and that is my weekly norm (and improving all the time).
I run because I am obsessive and it beats the hell out of being a scumbag addict. I figure I should have a few more years of PR's in me since I started so late and so out of shape.
At age 30, and not because turning 30 was a big deal. I'd been living in the rainforest on an island in the southwestern Pacific, walking everywhere, doing research, and when I finished up I was in the capital city for a few months before heading back to the US.
A couple of other researchers said, "Hey, we're doing this thing called jogging, want to join us?" I said "Sure, why not?" There was a grass track within walking distance, so I started doing laps in the morning even when part of the track was underwater.
I loved it. It helped that I was already quite fit. That was 1974. By '76 I had run a marathon, liked that a lot, and went to to run over 20, including a couple of Bostons.
I mostly walk now, but can do reasonably long distances (20+ miles) and I still love the feeling of working hard, pushing when tired, and the satisfaction of doing something difficult. Of course with 80 in sight "pushing" means something very different than when I was in my late 30s (my peak). I'll only quit when it's physically impossible.
The Air Force Academy admission information said doolies (freshmen) had to run two miles so I ran two miles as a senior in high school to see if I could do it. I played lots of sports and doolies were required to run everywhere, but I wouldn't call jogging in dress shoes or combat boots "running." After graduation, might run once a month, but I never really became a runner until about ten years later when I attended Squadron Officers School. We were required to run (I think) three times a week for 12 minutes and we did a 1.5 mile run periodically. To my surprise, I was better than almost all the nonrunners.
My next assignment was to Athens, Greece and I continued running. There was an event called a marathon from Marathon to Athens that my buddies were running so we made matching T-shirts and ran it three times. My long run was 8 miles. I bonked on every marathon.
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Officially, 7th grade age 12. I was on the soccer team and my PE coach told me that starting that day I was on cross-country. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had shorts and a tshirt and they gave you New Balance running shoes.
I fell in love with it- as Frank Shorter says- the motion of running just appeals to some people.
I kept at it to compete because I loved the pre-race jitters and competition.
I rarely compete now, but at 63 I'm healthier than any non-runner I know and I still love a daily 3-4 miles.