RUNNING MEMORIES AS A KID

My vacation week auto-posts will continue with memories of running as a kid. Gather round the campfire ya'll, this is going to be good. Okay, not really. I am seriously digging for topics here. I wrote that post about becoming a runner about a year ago and it was fairly thorough. Was looking for the right time to post it and the vacation week seemed like a good time... I did notice in re-reading it though I didn't talk about running as a kid.

Cascade Runoff 15k back in the day.

Back in the day, the 1990s, I was a young lad. My dad was a runner and I remember him coming home from runs all sweaty and stretching in the family room. A couple times I joined him on his runs on my bike. I never really thought about how hard he had to work (he'd typically run like five miles... the most he ever ran at once was a 15k). I just remember being tuckered out after biking with him on his runs.

My dad did run the Cascade Runoff (what is now the Shamrock Run) and I remember going down to Waterfront Park to meet him after running that for a number of years. I even took park in the Kid's Dash race that was only a few hundred yards. Very vague memories of that. He ran a 1:04 one year and I still need to beat that. He also did Hood to Coast for three straight years back in the early 90s.

So while running was in the family, he didn't talk about it much or try to make any of us run. So it was only once I became a runner that I remembered... oh yeah, Dad actually did some official running stuff too, and it's been fun to chat about it with him. He eventually "retired" from running and switched to things easier on his body.

Yeah, I was a little excited.

Starting in sixth grade we had to run the mile twice a year as part of PE class. They'd time you in the fall and then again in the spring to see how much you improved (if any). I was always able to run the mile without walking, all the way through high school and college. It wasn't easy, I'd be coughing and dry heaving afterward, but I could do it. So since about age twelve I've been able to run a mile, even later on in high school and college when I wasn't in great shape. So my starting point was a lot better than many people who begin running. I guess I was active enough in sports and whatnot to keep a basic level of fitness.

My most fit year, until the last few years, was 7th grade when I was on a classic soccer team. For warm up we'd have to run 1.5 miles and we practiced for two hours twice a week with lots of running. That year in PE I ran a 7:55 mile, a time that I wouldn't pass until age 25. Yes, 25 year old Thomas was pretty proud of himself for beating 13 year old Thomas. Now I could sneeze and run a 7:55, but still, that is a damn fast mile and I never approached it again (I think my next best time was a "high 8" early in high school). Recreational soccer the next few years didn't quite train me as well.

So that was thoroughly uninteresting, but hey, it filled some space and hopefully you learned something. I'll be back soon with a report on my vacation running (let's hope).