Who Were Your Early Running Mentors? How long have you been running, and who helped you along when you first got started? Did you start running in grade school, or were you an adult-onset runner that tried figuring everything out for yourself? Has it only been a few years or have you been running for a long time?
For myself, I've been running as long as I can remember, even in the years before my first official race. When I was a kid, I used to go out and run in the road that went out behind our house, and if I was tired afterward then I would just cut through the woods to come back into our yard. (Although, since we had a large yard and the neighbor had a haying field, I don't know if that really saved much distance versus coming back on the roads!)
Officially, at least in regards to when I began racing, I first started running in middle school on the cross country team. My middle school cross-country coach, Mrs. Heffernan, just did a wonderful job of introducing the sport to young people and I got hooked on it right from the get go. Running for the middle school on an organized team was a great introduction to making it a conscious lifestyle choice.
My first road race was actually after my first cross country season when I was in the 7th grade. It was on Thanksgiving Day, when I ran the Manchester Road Race in Connecticut. Manchester was a lot of fun and that got me into the sport outside of just the regular school running seasons, especially because I discovered that road racing was my next favorite sport after cross country.
Another of my early mentors was my high school coach, Mark Logan, who had the same philosophy as Mrs. Heffernan. They just did a great job of teaching me the fundamentals and helping me to learn a safe and effective way to get into the sport, and certainly did a good job of getting me hooked on it without burning out.
Once I got to college I got a glimpse of my own potential, and I started paying more attention to the professional running scene and learning more about the history of the sport. Running icons such as Steve Prefontaine and fictional characters such as Quentin Cassidy gave me ideals to strive for, and by the time I left college I had a healthy appreciation for everything the sport has to offer.
I can't imagine a life without running.
Blaine Moore is a running coach in Southern Maine with 20 years of
training and racing experience. Download his free report,
The 3 Components of an Effective Workout, to learn why the work you put in during your training is only the third most important factor that determines how well you improve as a runner and an athlete.