My running history, Part 1

     Seems I ought to provide some background to set up some perspective here. I was born many years ago as a small child...

     The first memory of running I can come up with is tearing willy-nilly through the woods behind our house in my hometown of Logan, Ohio. I can still remember the fun of just running as fast as I could while dodging around trees, ducking under branches and jumping over low spots and fallen trees. I liked the feeling of going fast and the sound of wind going past my ears. Simple pleasures are indeed the best.  

     I ran track and cross-country in High School and had an astoundingly average career. I was second best miler on the team and also ran the 880. Events were still in yards back then, and run on cinder tracks (which I still like!). We ran mostly on golf courses for cross and I can remember running barefoot a lot of the time then, sometimes in races. We moved from Ohio to Madison WI after my Sophomore year and I truly became one with mediocrity in the much larger school. I have sporadic memories at best of those two years but I do remember our coach. Coach Murray yelled a lot so I didn't hear him much. During cross practice we'd do laps at a large park near the school, and Coach would sit at a picnic table and drink, slumping worse as we passed with each lap until he'd basically pass out with his head on the table. You go, Coach. We had an assistant coach who ran with us though, and he was friendly and helpful. Graduation, jobs, onward.     

     I ran off and on the next 20 years, sometimes with long gaps but never really quit. I can remember some road races in Madison, I did the Syttende Mai 20 miler from Madison to Stoughton several times, and ran the Chicago Marathon in 1986. I was a house painter for many years and have always run late afternoon after work. I also biked a lot then, sometimes going on the roads around Lake Monona.

     In 1996 I moved to Bloomington IN, and Part 2 will take it from there...