Funny story how it all got started...

I remember like it was yesterday. It was grade 4. I wasn't technically a fat kid, but I was slightly overweight. I also wasn't the healthiest. I was the only kid who brought 2 sandwiches to school for lunch. This was when we had one longer lunch, not two nutritional breaks. I remember having to hide the 2nd sandwich and eat the first one as quick as possible to get to the second one. I couldn't let anyone see I had two sandwiches because I was teased for eating too much. I had asthma too. A perfect combination for being bullied. Somehow though, I made the cross-country team. I don't know what possessed me to join or how I made the team. In our only meet I remember placing 96th out of 120 kids that day. It was posted on the wall at school along with all the other competitors from our school. Can you believe the "fat kid" teased me? This kid never got ridiculed for eating 3-4 hot dogs on Hot Dog Day. Actually, he was praised like a champion just like Kobayashi on July 4th. And me? I was teased for completing a long distance race and finishing near the bottom.

I should confess. I could shake off comments like this and the "fat kid" was actually a close friend at the time, but still, kids can be crude and this memory still sticks with me vividly. Maybe subconsciously something was planted deep inside. That was all the long distance running I did for 22 years. I played travel baseball after that. Running was used as punishment for mistakes made on the field. Another reason for me to hate running. One lap around the baseball field for missing a ground ball sucked, big time. So I have asthma, being teased for finishing near the bottom of the pack, and running used as punishment going against me. How the heck do I become an running addict later in life?

Flash forward to 2012, I'm 30 now, and a charity run called "Jingle All the Way" 5k is coming up. Donate a canned good and you can run 5km with the town locals. I am in decent shape now and go to the gym regularly but my focus was on just being healthy. Maybe impress some ladies with my amazing beach body. I would do some light cardio to get warmed up, but that was it. My boss, (idol perhaps?) is Joe Perry. He's just getting into running as well. He's one of the crazy dudes running Around the Bay 30k whom I called crazy. He asks me to join him on the race. "No," I say, "I can't run 5k without stopping, I'll embarrass myself." Joe doesn't push me, he's not like that. He'll lead by example. Then I am approached by a nice old lady at the gym. She's about 75, and reminds me of my grandma. She says "I'll run the race only if you go too." To which I reply "Lady, you have yourself a deal."

Saturday morning, day of the race. I grab my canned good and go to the meeting point. Joe is excited to see I changed my mind. I'm nervous as hell. Mentally, I'm ready to bomb at the 2km mark and embarrass myself. I look everywhere for that nice old lady. She ditched me. Crap. Well, here goes nothing, no turning back now. It was a decent December morning. It was just above zero degrees Celsius, (34-38 F). No snow on the roads yet. I finished the entire 5k without stopping! Call it adrenaline. Call it my already healthy attitude and lifestyle. Call it luck. I felt like I could another 5km. I was hooked. I got it. I fully understood why people love this sport. That runner's high. The running community in general. That feeling of a hard job well accomplished. What happened to that nice old lady at the gym? She bailed to Florida! I don't blame her though...I thank her. She did have a decent excuse...a snowstorm was approaching and she wanted to get to her winter home earlier than planned.