Running

I (Andrew) have had an up and down relationship with running. And when I say up and down, I mean up and down like Ross and Rachel on Friends.

In 2006 I ran the Hatfield McCoy Marathon in the 2nd best state in the Union, West Virginia. My perky and enthusiastic wife decided that any marathon with a free pre-race dinner and post-race barbecue would be a good one, and I stupidly agreed to run the marathon. We ran and ran, slogging through winter runs in Hamburg and dark early mornings.

The marathon was pretty crappy, all things considered. I didn't train enough, and although I finished 2nd in my age group, my time was slower than I wanted it to be, I hated the course, and my feet hurt for weeks afterwords.

About 6 weeks after that marathon, I rode the Wilderness 101 in State College, PA. I got my butt totally kicked, but fell deeply in love with endurance mountain biking. The rest is (personal, and kind of uninteresting) history. I have been a kind-of committed cyclist for the past 5 years, occasionally dabbling in other sports over the winter, or intermittently, but never seriously training for anything other than bike racing.

And I wasn't even too serious about that.

Over the past year or so, we've had some major life changes. First and most importantly, we got a second dog, Chopper.

Isn't he cute? I sure think so.

Oh wait, maybe he wasn't the biggest change. I remember another new addition to the family.

Ben, of course. Look at that little face.

While my lovely and loving wife takes care of pretty much all of the housework, and nearly all of the baby work, I have found myself less and less willing to leave for two or three hours to get a ride in on weekdays. Not to mention the fact that the bar exam destroyed my free time, energy, and will to live for the month of July.

So I have decided to become a runner. I am attempting to develop a personal relationship with pavement pounding, and put my faith in the church of shuffling.

But I will never run a race longer than 13.1 miles on pavement, ever again, under any circumstances, for any reason.

In furtherance of my new number one hobby, I am going to run some races next year. The only two that I am sure about, at this point in time, are the Mohican Trail Marathon, next June, and the Oil City 50k, next fall.