Run #1

Today marks my official first run in my long long, looooooong journey to eventually completing an ultramarathon.  I ran for 1hr 6mins and I think I ran somewhere around 8 miles.  I'm not entirely sure of the distance.  I plan to post an entry as soon as I can after each run, or when anything pertinent arises.  I won't know until after the fact if a small event today will have extreme consequences down the road so I'd like to share everything as it happens in the moment.  You'll find out along with me if some chance encounter with a runner turns out to be a lifelong friend, training partner, or perhaps rival.  Maybe it's just a chance encounter with a random runner.

As I was running along the Mount Vernon trail in my Bikilas I was passed by a stout military looking guy wearing a skin tight green shirt and a tan camouflage camel back.  He wasn't running much faster than I was so I trotted behind him for probably a mile before cruising up beside him to strike up a conversation.  "How far are you running?" I asked. Seeming a little shocked I was talking to him, "About 10 miles."  He replied.  "Are you training for something?"  "Yeah, the Marine Corps half marathon in a couple weeks."  I asked if he was in the military and he replied, "I was, but not any more.  I was in the Marine Corps."  It turns out he was an officer and he used to be the platoon commander of a scout/sniper platoon.  What a small world.  We small talked back and forth a little about he military and a little about crappy previous experiences with running for a few miles until we hit the airport in Crystal City.  That would be my turnaround point and he continued off the trail somewhere else, but we traded names and he said he'd look me up on Linkedin.  I'll call him Scout on here.

Before Scout and I parted ways, he mentioned that he had no intention of running the Marine Corps full marathon in October, but if I was interested in training with him he might suck it up and run it anyway.  I hadn't really planned on running the Marine Corps marathon, but that actually seems like a great idea.  That will give me around 5 months to train barefoot before taking on the first big hurdle in my journey.  I'm not entirely worried about running a half marathon as I think I could actually do that without much problem now.  I'll find one to run somewhere between now and the Marine Corps marathon.

My run today felt great.  It was actually really nice to run at someone else's pace for awhile.  The conversation helped too.  Time seemed to fly by, and we were at the airport before I knew it.  While running back I noticed some hot spots on my feet.  I didn't stop to check them out, mostly because I wasn't sure I'd be able to get my feet back into my Bikilas if the hot spots were actually blisters.  I just motored on at a gentle pace.  I took a note from Dean and just took baby steps.  One foot in front of the other.  Any tired feelings drifted away along with the pain in my feet and I began to admire the scenery.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day along the Potomac River, and there were tons of people out.  I made it a point to try and smile and give at least a nod to everyone I passed.  Most people didn't even notice, in a running zone or daydream or something, but many people it seemed to really lift their spirits as they usually responded with an ear-to-ear grin.  Maybe I just looked kind of goofy being a smiling 6 foot 200 pound guy running in foot gloves.  Either way it made me feel a little better during my run.  I think learning to run with a smile is my first lesson in making running a way of life.