I did not like running, hated it actually, and I had no intention of trying it out. Compared to activities I enjoyed (soccer, mountain biking, ping-pong, tennis, etc.), running seemed boring. In 2000, being recently married, I wanted my wife and me to find an exercise we could do together. She had no interest in playing soccer and Philly was not the best place for mountain biking, so that limited our options. I asked her to choose one sport for us, and to my horror, she picked running. That was not what I was hoping for, but I decided to be a good sport and give it an honest try. So, we started running. We even bought a treadmill for the winter months.
Long story short, my wife gave up running after a few months and I kept going. To my surprise, I ended up enjoying running. It was fun, it felt good, and compared to soccer or mountain biking it resulted in fewer injuries (way fewer!). That is not to say that the early months and years were easy. Getting to the point of being able to run any meaningful distance took a lot of work. I had to learn to pace myself, to keep a proper posture and gait, to step correctly. I had to work through a lot of issues: knee pain, foot pain, hip pain, even Morton’s neuroma surgery. Through all that, I kept going, running as much as 40 miles per week.
I travel a lot for work, sometimes more, sometimes less. Running has helped me stay in shape and keep my weight under control (mostly). I would bring my running shoes, wake up early and just go. Traveling for work does not allow much sightseeing, so I got to do mine while running, before the meetings started. Before arriving at a new place, I would use a map to make my running plan. Early morning, no traffic, no people, just the sound of feet on the pavement. That is how I saw Tokyo, Amsterdam, Zurich, Boston, …
For the longest time, I had the greatest running buddy in the world, my dog Maggie. Being an Irish Setter, she loved to run. We covered thousands of miles together. I miss her dearly.
This blog documents some of my runs. Since I mainly run in the mornings, I have taken quite a few spectacular (IMHO) sunrise pictures. Tracks and pictures from our runs have been collecting digital dust on hard disks and thumb drives, sometimes for years, and now I am adding them to this site as I find the time. The main purpose is so that I can browse it and remind myself of all those good times, but if others find it useful or motivational, all the better.