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The First Post is Always Awkward.

The first post is always awkward but I guess you have to start somewhere. 

There are so many things you can talk about on a running blog. I could start with a shoe review, my personal bests, or my upcoming races but I am not sure that is at all interesting for anybody. Here it goes…

I only started running two years ago. I say only because that’s the way we runners speak. It is like there is always something we could be doing better, faster or sooner. I was kind of chubby so I decided to start running. This blog isn’t getting off to a great start because this sounds like everybody. So I will back up a little bit further.

Let’s go back to 1999. I was 9 years old and we were living in Ottawa at the time. My Mom was about to run her first half-marathon. This is at least the first recorded one I can find via a quick google search. She ran it in 2:06. The next year in 2000 she ran the same race in 2:04, then going on to break the 2-hour mark in 2001 with 1:59. In 2002, Mom ran her first marathon at the National Capital Race Weekend once again. She was 35 years old, running it in 4:04. This seems to be the time that I have my first memories of my Mom running. At this point in time, online training programs we not nearly as popular as they are now and they certainly were not as fine tuned as they used to be either. I remember Mamma J running 10 kilometers every morning in the summer. My parents cashed in their Air-Miles to get me a new bike. I rode that bike 10KM with Mamma J every morning, 5K to the corner store for my Spice Girls Chupa-Chup and 5K back to the house. 

Now let’s fast-forward to today. Mamma J has run 20 marathons, her fastest being a 3:28. This is my background into distance running. I have to give you the background because Mamma J is the training-partner I could ever ask for. I entered the running world on my own accord in 2010 when I was living in Vancouver, three-quarters of the way through doing my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at Emily Carr University. Like most people starting to run, I got out of bed and ran as far as I could down the street and back until I got further and further. It isn’t the most inspiring start but I won’t lie to make it more elaborate and tear-jerking. In the spring of 2011, I ran the Calgary Half-Marathon with my dear friend Amy. 

Since finishing my undergraduate degree in Vancouver, I am living in Calgary. I work at a technical running shop downtown which has allowed me to dive even deeper into the world of running and really start investigating why running is cool. 

This past September came Calgary Natural High. At work one day I was chatting with a friend and co-worker, Ryan Russell. We were talking about the lack of training groups here in Calgary. A few hours later we decided we would start one of our own, focused on bringing runners together, giving them a place to train and run together regardless of their background or running history. Three months later we’ve been running every Sunday together for distances ranging from 3k - 20k. New friendships have formed and new goals achieved. Our goal is to create a running community based around the core values of family: respect, togetherness and love.

I’ve given you the condensed version of my running history. What is the point of this blog? In the past year I’ve realized I am obsessed with the sport of running. I am beyond fascinated with why people run. Running with a group and working in a technical running shop I see so many different ways of approaching the sport. I am constantly reading books about the history of running, the changes in footwear and the fluctuation in market trends. I am experiencing all these things and getting caught up in it as I go. This is why I feel it is very useful to write about it, thinking maybe it will help other people along the way.

To get a little bit less serious, I am clearly no elite runner but perhaps that makes this much more interesting. I don’t really care for talking about how fast I’ve run or sometimes how slow, I want to open up a space where people can relate to somebody else out there pounding the pavement. Neon clothed, I’ve pooped in bushes while out for a tempo run after eating hot wings the night before. I’m really interested in how running drastically changed after Oprah said she could run a marathon. Do all the people that bought into the barefoot movement have stress-fractures yet?

I am running my first marathon at the Calgary Marathon Race Weekend on May 26, 2013. These are my thoughts, failures and successes along the way. 

Running is cool.