I'm an Average Joe Runner

Hi, my name is Kevin and I’m an Average Joe Runner.  That sounds almost like the start of an addiction meeting doesn’t it?

ad·dic·tion [uh-dik-shuhn] noun

The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

I wouldn’t say that I’m an addict, but most addicts wouldn’t say that they are addicts either.  I know that I have to run.  If I go too long without a run I start to get irritable and cranky and physically start to feel bad.  Too many days in a row without a run and I start to enter a serious funk where I’m just not happy.  At this point you’re probably thinking I’m one of those hard core want to run all the time guys, but that is not the case.

I put runners into 3 categories, and while it may seem that they are aligned based on results, they are actually aligned based on life emphasis on running.  There are the Super-Elites, the Mebs and Shalanes of the world.  Running is their life and for them running commonly takes first priority over all other aspects of their life.  Then there are the Elites, these are the people winning or placing at the top your local races.  Running is a huge part of their life and for them running is the top of all their hobbies.  And then there is us, the Average Joe Runners.  We fill up the bulk of all the race entrants and for us running is a part of our life.  It’s not who we are, but we wouldn’t be who we are without it.  There are many articles from the Super-Elites, and many Elites have blogs, but finding a blog from an AJR is very difficult to do, thus Scott started this blog and I’ve agreed to pen an article or two.

We pause this article for a running break.  [Kevin exits for a run]  Ok, I’m back now.  All this running talk got me to where I wanted to run so I just darted out the door and got in a 5K.  It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t on my training plan, but I just wanted to do it.  It gave me some time to think about what I’d write about next.

When I go on vacation I check out the locations to get in a run.  I love checking off running in a new state.  I’m currently up to 13 different states.  I love running on trails, beaches, pavement, urban and rural.  I’ve run up mountains in the Rockies and along beaches on the Gulf and the inner streets of large cities.  I’ve run in sun, rain, sleet, snow, but not yet hail.  I don’t plan to check that one off either.  I read about a runner that got caught in a hail storm, sounded painful.  I run mostly in the morning as I like a good sunrise, but I’ve run at sunset and at night as well.  I run with music, I run without music.  I run mostly alone, but enjoy company when I get a chance.  I’ve run more with Scott than anyone else and we still only run about 1 out of every 50 runs together.  That’s about to change with our running plan for our next adventure, the 50Mile stage of 3 Days of Syllamo.  This next adventure is another reason for this blog.  We plan to chronicle our training, lessons learned, and race reports leading up to the big race on March 16^th, 2013.

So, how’d we get here?  Let me back the story up a bit. I started running after Labor Day of 2008.  I was at a family cookout eating and getting even fatter when the whole family discussed running a 5K that Christmas.  My Wife, Sister-In-Law (Scott’s wife Jenni), Father-In-Law, Aunt-In-Law (is that a word?), and Cousin-In-Law (again, word?) all decided to do it.  Scott was out, he wasn’t running any further than the fridge and he let us know it.  Then 10 months later Jenni and I were running our first Half Marathon and Scott was there cheering us on.  It wouldn’t be much longer and Scott would be joining us.  Fast forward 4 years later and I’ve never quit.  Somewhere along the way I switched from dreading to run to wanting to run.  I switched from worrying about running to reading about running to now writing about running.

This has been your introduction to me.  Scott and I are preparing our journey to running our first 50Mile trail race next March.  We invite you to come along for the journey.  We’ll be blogging about our training runs, lessons learned, race profiles, and pretty much everything else that enters our heads.  Hi, My name is Kevin and I'm an Average Joe Runner.

 

Myself (left) and Scott after the 2012 LR Marathon.