I began running in 2004, shortly after turning 30, when I was diagnosed with skin cancer, and decided to get healthy. I started just walking after work; that progressed to jogging, which ultimately transitioned to running.
I’ve had to take small breaks from running, like 6-months off after oculoplasty, 6-months for a torn meniscus, 6-months for a torn left transcrural ligament, and another 6-months when I broke both arms — to say nothing of the various days and weeks taken off for assorted aches, pains, and strains. But, as the calendar goes, I’ve been running for ten years. In that time, I’ve used an Excel spreadsheet, a Google doc, Runkeeper, and Nike+ to track my mileage. In the first three of those services, I’ve logged one- or two-hundred miles, but in Nike+ I crossed a threshold worthy of noting here: 3,000-miles run in 10-years.
According to Wolfram|Alpha, that’s 1.3 x the distance from New York to Los Angeles (as the crow flies), or the exact distance between San Francisco and some place called Cranston, RI.
With any amount of luck (and some actual stretching), it will be fun to see how far I can get before I can’t run anymore. Some day, when I’m feeling more reflective, I’ll write about the more interesting part about running: Why I do it.