Two years ago, I ran the fastest mile race of my life. 4 minutes and 22 seconds.
At the beginning of my senior-year high school Track season, I set my sights on a 4:22 mile. My best time from the previous season was 4:30. I never took my eyes of the prize – I aimed for that 4:22 all season long, slowly improving my best time every few weeks.
- Mar 8, 2008 – 4 minutes and 31 seconds
- Mar 29, 2008 – 4 minutes and 26 seconds
- Apr 18, 2008 – 4 minutes and 24 seconds
- May 16, 2008 – 4 minutes and 22 seconds
I finally ran a 4:22 mile at the Sac-Joaquin Section Meet. It was the perfect way to finish up my high school running career, and I was quite pleased with myself.
A few days later, I gave a speech at the end-of-year Track banquet where I reflected on the last 3 years of my life as a runner. There, in front of my coaches, all my teammates and their parents, I proudly proclaimed that I was a lifelong runner now, all thanks to my coaches who taught me to love the sport of running.
It made me happy to know that I would be a runner for the rest of my life. What a great life! I gave all the credit to my excellent coaches (Rob Fairley and John Mansoor) who showed me how much fun running could be.
Fast forward to today.
I haven’t run consistently for pretty much the past two years (since the first quarter of Stanford). College makes running difficult: No consistent Track or Cross Country practice to attend, no teammates to encourage you to run, and no real consequences for not running. Plus, there are so many other interesting things to do. Time flies.
But, something snapped in me today. I’m determined to start running again – and to keep running. Forever.
Goal: Run daily
So, that’s the point of this blog post. I’m publicly declaring my intent to run daily. It doesn’t matter how many miles I run each day. What’s important is that I run daily. I will share my progress (or lack thereof) publicly. This should raise the stakes. If I fail, everyone will see it.
Now the pressure is on – I have to give this my best effort. So, take a look at my public running log. If you like what you see, share your encouragement in the comments. If you’re disappointed, share that too. Everything helps.
I’m determined to reach this goal.
Update (10/1/2010)
After running pretty consistently for a couple months, YouTube Instant happened to me, and I lost my consistency. :(
Update (8/23/2012)
Yay! I’ve been running very consistently lately. You can follow my running log on RunKeeper.
(If you liked this, you might like Travels in Japan.)
