Why I run...

Every weekend I get up early and go for a long run of at least 10 miles. 

For over three years I’ve done this without missing a single weekend. 

This morning I was up at 4:30 to get out on the trail by 5:30.

I completed week 165 today with a 15.5 mile run.

The most amazing thing is the fact that for more than three years I haven’t been sick enough to stop me from running at least 10 miles. 

I’ve only had a couple of colds over the last three years that made me even question if I could run 10 miles.

But I’ve done it; every weekend.

It’s not just about getting up early on the weekends and running 10-20 miles. 

It’s all of the in-between miles.

It’s the cold rainy mornings at 5:00 when I don’t even want to get out of bed.

It’s making myself do what my body doesn’t want to do.

It’s pushing myself to do one more mile.

It’s putting on those running shoes day after day.

Rain or shine, alone or with thousands of other runners in a race.

People ask if I always enjoy running.

Not all the time.

But it’s the tough runs that make the great runs so good.

It’s the tough days in life that make the great days so good.

It’s the tough times that make me appreciate the good times all the more.

So in a month, July 30, my streak of running 10 miles every weekend will come to an end.

It’ll be a day to remember.

It won’t be a day that I failed at something.

It’ll be the day I will have kicked cancer’s butt; cut the sonofabitch right out!

And then I get the excitement of starting to run all over again.

Walking a mile, then running a mile, then running two miles, three miles, four miles...

It’ll get back up to 10 miles, then 13.1, then 26.2

That’s the way I choose to look at it.

Thanks to so many of you who have been with me on those 10+ mile runs.

There will be many more to come!