The First Mile

The first mile..... that is what I ran yesterday, with out stopping, with out dying at the end of it, and in ten minutes.... my first mile. In all my 29 years I would have never believed I could have ran one mile, all 5,280 feet of it, and not stopped or dyed at the end. It is an accomplishment, that to me, will forever go down as one of the sweetest despite anything that I will ever do after that. Rome wasn't built in a day, but by small blocks one piece at a time. Just like my one mile, my running life wasn't built all at once, but that one mile will stack upon the next one.

Forgive me... here I am boasting about my achievements and I have yet to properly introduce myself. I am a simple guy that enjoys the simple life. I am married to Running Nerd Mel and a doggy father to Running Dog Shelby. ( hereafter all Running Nerds will be referred to as RN and Running Dogs will be referred to as RD, I am to lazy to type that all out) I have been married close to 9 wonderfully long years and wouldn't trade a minute of that. I am blessed with the best friends a man could ever want. Some of which are on here my fellow RNs Jim and Ash (the people that are a huge part of my inspiration to run), two wonderful people we met some time back Nick and Amanda (seriously the nicest people alive), and Kayla that is RN Mel's cousin and a sister that I never had (seriously folks I torture her and yet she still loves me). We live in a cozy spot at the end of nowhere in small town surrounded my smaller towns. At least that is how I imagine where we live. And to cap off the simple life I like to go knock around in my shop on Saturdays and fiddle with broken do-dads and tinker with old projects while I listen to Country music and sip on a beer. Ah the simple life.... Anyhoo I do have one disclaimer I had better mention so with out further ado.... I have an ego that hasn't been topped since high school when I unsuccessfully tried to jump a rail in front of the girl I liked and slammed into the wall like a fly on a windshield. I imagine myself a greek god chiseled from the finest marble the world has ever seen, fit to be a statue amongst the gods themselves on Mount Olympus. What I fail to mention is that is how I "imagine" myself....  in actuality what I closely resemble is a tub of greek yogurt about ten years past its best buy date. See I may have an ego, but I can admit the truth when its necessary. :)

My motivations are simple really for all that I do. I like to make my life a little better, more enjoyable, and a little easier than it was the day before, and I'd like to think that that motivation is evident in all parts of my life. I go to work and strive to do a better job than I did the day before and learn more so that just maybe the next day won't be quite as hard as the last day. I like to read books so that my imagination gets fired up and that allows me to explore new possibilities that only pure imagination can fuel. My running is no different to me. I run to make my life better. A little of my ego does get involved, I like to run to prove to myself that I can do it, and one of my biggest motivations to running and finishing a 5K is so that my friends and family can see me cross the finish line. And I want to look and feel better. Most of my motivations are selfish, but they are mine, they are what get my feet in my Sketcher GoRun (shameless plug) and my butt out the door, and my legs moving down the track. I'm proud of my motivations because so far they work.