Run, Kevin, Run

So, where do I begin…I have always loved to run.  I wanted to play football but was told I was too small. I really liked playing baseball, once again too small. So, I started running with the Steuben Striders (Steubenville, Ohio).  I was 11 when I when to my first track meet and I was hooked.  I tried all kinds of events.  However, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that I liked the long distance events the most.  

I continued running with Striders every summer and once I was in high school (Jefferson Union High School) I joined the track team. I really wanted to do cross country but it was at the same time a marching band season, so I stuck with just spring track season.

I mostly ran the mile and two-mile. All those who have been on a track team know you fill in any events you can to get points for the team. So, I long jumped, pole vaulted, steeple chased and hurdled. All these efforts resulted in horrible results but garnered points for the team. After a growth spurt between the end of my sophomore and junior year (I grew 6 inches in 3 months), I was gangly and uncoordinated and only weighed about 120lbs. So I just stuck with long distances.

I hated but ran the 800m, l ran and liked the mile, but really loved the two mile. Somewhere along the way I was part of a record breaking 2 mile relay team (9:15), set a school record in the mile (5:01) and two mile (9:45) and we went to the district championships. I was also running road races nothing long or fast but it had started.

I enlisted in the Navy before I actually graduated high school and was delayed in starting my Navy career by 10 months. In time after graduating HS and leaving for the Navy I ran, I was road racer. 5K’s and 10K’s were popular and I did 5 or 6 of them that summer. The best one was the Pittsburgh Great Race (http://www.rungreatrace.com/). The Great Race is a 10K thru the streets of Pittsburgh, PA. I didn’t how to train or prepare and nutrition was not the science it is today. I still managed a 36:36 (5:53/mi) and 4^th place finish in the 18 and under age group and top 100 overall.

Then my Navy career begins.  So I had no problem with the running portion of the fitness regimen that military lifestyle adds and I did well to keep my road race hobby going.  I ran the Cooper River Bridge(http://www.bridgerun.com/)  run in Charleston  5 times from 1986 to 1992 and loved the challenging hill of the old bridges. 

That was about it…for whatever reason or excuse I didn’t run as much and then not all. Well, just enough to pass Navy physical fitness test from 1992-1997 or get me through Officer Candidate School in 1998…Why I don’t know but that would all change.