Many Missed Opportunities, How my running has changed

I have been running for a very long time. I feel like I have been running for my entire life. I may be right.

I started running when I was 8 years old. As I was running with the guys at summer camp, I realized I could run.

At that time, there were very few races for kids. There were even fewer that included women, and people who were not sponsored or running with a team. Running for fun was just a young concept and I wanted to be a part of it. I started with short sprints (200m, 400m, 1500m). In Junior High and High School, I ran track and field when I there were available races in my area. There were only a few races for girls, but I did well when I ran.  I came in in the top 3 many times. It was thrilling to sprint and feel the wind in your face.

There was much talk about track and field in the news, but no vehicle to get to do it without a team. As an individual, you had to seek out any opportunities to run. I was never in any danger of going to the Olympics and not sponsored to any professional team. THere were a few and some of my old team mates went for them, but I kept running solo. Enter the Colgate Women’s Games.

The Colgate Women’s Games had finals in one of the Armories in the City of New York. This was great if you were within the age range they were sponsoring for their races. At one point they did College running. I was never able to get to something like the Penn Relays, but it was a goal. Back in the West, there were many opportunities in Oregon for team and College runners. Which was unfortunate as, I decided not to do track in College. But I kept running anyway. I discovered the 5K.

Enter the New York Road Runners. Though mentally, I never wanted to run long distance races, I found them fun and challenging. I was not the best at running long distance, but I was older and wiser. I tried many different types of races. But I had not had as much fun as when I ran my first marathon.

My second marathon was a Disney race. Since then I have gone on to become a RunDisney Fan. I still need to continue my RunDisney Races in 2019. How? Time will tell.

I had kept running through my awkward years of illness, 200+ lbs, and yet this is when I had the most fun running. I ran for fun and competed against the clock. That’s not to say that I did not do well, but I knew that this long distance would be the ultimate challenge.

I ran many marathon, half marathons and the like, but I never felt like I should stop until after I turned 50.

I have missed as many races as I have ran. Illness and other health concerns are not easy to leave behind after a certain age. But as I slow down, I still dream of the next race. Sponsored or not, it will happen until I am that 80+ year old woman in the news who has to run and complete her race along side of the 18, 20, 30 something crowd. My hope is that all people experience a race just one in their life.

I may still be out there! Happy Running!