Happy Feet

Hello Again, Happy Friday!

I thought I’d provide you with a brief history of  how I got my happy feet before I continue blogging about my many experiences with running.

I come from a large family of brothers, I’m one of 5, no girls! Growing up my brothers and I used to run track and field all the time: we loved it, breathed it, and were highly competitive with each other. As life moved on and we all got older, we forgot, and were too busy for the joy of sport in general. Throughout high school, living in Ottawa, I was completely oblivious to being active.  I lived a pretty uninspired life of a partying teen who had lost my way. Alas, High School is a tough stage for any teenager.

After barely graduating, my Mom had decided to run a 1/2 marathon for my late grandfather and asked me to join her, and in my adolescent mind I decided that it would be easy!  I barely trained for it, maybe I ran a few 5K’s. My lack of preparation and pure ignorance was exactly what I needed coming into my first race. I showed up for the race and gave it my everything for 10K. I got looks of concern from everyone I passed, almost saying with their eyes “Kid, we just started.” As I hit 10K, everything in my body stopped working. The other 11K was a journey with myself that I had never been on before. It was mentally and physically exhausting, it made me wonder how people can do this sport. This race changed my life and was the building blocks of an entire 360 towards the positive, healthy lifestyle I live today.

Today, I have a lot of things to be proud of at the ripe age of 27. I live with my beautiful wife in Ottawa, with our puppy Jax. I love music and play the guitar, have a great job and and I’ve tallied 8 marathons including a Boston, along with several 1/2’s,  and other runs along the way.

The things I’ll write about over this next while will encompass working to improve as a runner and getting faster. My blog is based on the community of runners I’ve known throughout the years and of  course many of my past and present goals in my own running career. This idea that when we start running, we are happy and proud, but eventually we begin to want more. We begin to say words like PB, goal, and BQ, among other words. Most people want to get stronger, post better times, and keep up with their best times. In addition there are those of us that want to run easy right until the end of a race, right up to that last 100 metres, then accelerate to full capacity and enjoy that moment when the crowd passes in an instant, when the cheers and the  breeze rush by our ears, adrenaline rushes through every ounce of our bodies and as the finish line passes by, for that moment we’ve reached superstardom.

I hope to connect with everyone here: Newbies, vets, young, old. I think it’s a running subject we can all relate to.

Here’s to you and happy feet!

D