Running
In 1999, I turned 31 and started to notice that my waistline was no longer as trim as it had been in my 20's. I was still in great shape from doing martial arts for several years, but it's disconcerting when pants no longer fit quite as well.
I asked one of my kung-fu brothers, who also happened to be a personal trainer, what the best way was to lose a little fat - try a little running, he said. That spring, I did a little jogging around Central Park, made all kinds of mistakes
(too much too soon, various injuries, bad shoes, erratic training). After I ran my first race (the Niketown Run for the Parks, 4 miles in 31:45) I was hooked, and I foolishly committed to running the NYC Marathon that fall. What followed was a study
in what not to do in training for your first marathon. Despite running a pitiful average of 15 miles a week, running backwards during a 20 mile long run and injuring my knee, taking a couple of weeks off in September to lie on the beach in Hawaii,
I still managed to run the marathon that November in 3:42:38. Running soon became more than a way to lose a couple of pounds, it was starting to become a way of life.
A disclaimer: at various times in my life I had flirted with running before. When I was young, my stepfather was an avid runner - he trained hard, and ran marathons. Occasionally he would take me to the track and I would run intervals. I remember
these sessions as being hard but exhilarating. I ran my first race, a 5K for the Friends of Animals, when I was 10 years old. Every once in a while I would go out for a jog, sometimes with both my mother and stepfather, sometimes alone. I played soccer
for a while, but always preferred running back and forth across the field to actually having to kick the ball. When I was an 8th grader in Plano, TX I was briefly on the track team. However, I didn't fit the "jock" ethos on the team and was given no coaching
and no encouragement. I managed to run a 5:30 mile on virtually no training before quitting. Lance Armstrong, who was training across town (admittedly, he's a couple of years younger) managed much more successfully in football-crazed Texas. When I got to college
I would run approximately 8 miles 3 or so times a week (more than when I was training for the marathon!) just for fun. After moving to NYC I was discouraged that my neighborhood was in such rough shape that there seemed be nowhere to run. It's no fun hurdling the
homeless and dodging drug deals while you are trying to get down the block. Since then, my neighborhood has improved immensely (think French bistros instead of crack dens) and East River Park has been greatly renovated.
After recovering from my first marathon, I picked up my training again, determined to get faster. No more dueling it out for 26.2 miles with jokers dressed like superheroes and farm animals. In March of 2000 I signed up for New York Road Runners Club running
classes with famed coach Bob Glover. Every Tuesday I would get myself up to Central Park to do tempo runs, interval workouts, and fartlek pickups with a large group of dedicated runners. Before too long, I moved into the fastest group. Some of the other guys asked me
if I was joining the team. What team? Turns out that Bob Glover coached a separate running club that had competitive entry standards and proper uniforms. After running a half-marathon in the Bronx, I went up to Bob and thanked him for his classes- I had just run a PR
(personal record) of 1:27- his response: I'll give you the team application on Tuesday. So now I was running for the Greater New York Racing Team, with their Screaming Yellow uniforms. Suddenly, training took on a whole new outlook. There were team races, team training,
and people to beat in the other clubs. I got daily updates in the form of Bob's Diary - an email newsletter that summarizes all the happenings past and present in Bob's life and in the running scene in general.
In my six years with GNY, I ran PR's at all distances, including a 2:44 marathon (NYC, 2002) and a 1:17 half-marathon (Brooklyn, 2002). I'm now capable of running 90-mile weeks, and months of 80+ mile weeks. And I've learned a tremendous amount about my own body, my mental and
emotional strength, and how to be disciplined in my training. My teammates came from all walks of life, and are some of the finest people I've ever met. Being on GNY was a real pleasure.
From 2003-2006 I worked for Bob, helping him coach the Road Runners classes. It was a pleasure getting paid for something I love to do and watching new runners improve and get faster. In 2007, I made a difficult decision and moved on to run with the Nike Central Park Track Club. I am thrilled to have found a new home and new friends, as well as an excellent new coach in Tony Ruiz. With CPTC, I've continued to improve as a runner, and look forward to setting more PR's in the years to come.
