It was March 2006, and I wore sweatpants and some old tennis shoes. I think I went a mile, but it was probably less than that. It felt good. I was tired, but invigorated. My skin tingled with sweat. My legs wobbled. My lungs burned. But it was satisfying in a way that spurred me to keep going. And that’s what I’ve done for 20 years, with plenty of highs and lows.
The first year
Not long after I started running did I decide to train for
my first race. I targeted the same 10K that I used to watch my dad run. Of course, it was no longer called the Kent Fest, nor was it even the same course he had run. But the race was still held before the start of the annual Kent Heritage Festival on July 4th weekend.
Training for that first race didn’t go easily. I started getting shin splints as I increased my mileage. A friend told me I should invest in actual running shoes, suggesting I go to Lucky Shoes in Fairlawn, Ohio, to get properly fitted. My dad always wore Brooks, so that’s what I got. The woman who helped me suggested an easy exercise to get rid of my shin splints, and I haven’t had a problem with them ever since. The shoes were a little big, but they served me well for more than 600 miles.
The biggest mistake I made that first year was training without a plan and not logging my mileage. I estimate I ran about 500 miles that year, which is still more than I’ve run since 2011. I linked up with Martini, and we ran together often. Watching him run the Akron Marathon again in 2006 inspired me to get serious and train for my own marathon. I read some books, started logging my miles and found a training plan to complete my first marathon in 2007.
The first marathon
Before embarking on training for my first marathon, I first decided to run a half marathon. My employer decided to encourage us to get fit (my boss being an avid triathlete), and they offered to pay for my entry for the
Cleveland Half Marathon in May 2007. Training through the winter was a bit of a challenge, but I was able to complete the race in less than two hours, which felt empowering.
As I morphed into a more serious runner, I decided to start chronicling my adventures in this here blog, the name deriving from a defunct MySpace group I used to run, where my friends and I would recount our drinking adventures. I kept the same idea with the blog, but added running to the mix.
My blogger handle was a nickname an old coworker had given me when I worked at a record store. I quickly discovered a whole community of likeminded runbloggers who encouraged and amused each other.
This was the year I really caught the racing bug. Running the half marathon gave me confidence to train for the
Akron Marathon that year, but I also ran a 5K, a 10K and another half marathon before completing my first 26.2-mile race.
I started to develop a set of racing goals that motivated me for several years. I wanted to beat 25 minutes in the 5K, 50 minutes in the 10K, 1:50 in the half marathon and four hours in the marathon. I trained hard that year, but four hours was just too tough to beat in my first attempt. I finished in 4:26 and vowed to keep trying.
The epic year
My third year of running was simply the most ever. Most mileage. Most races. Most fun. In 2008, I ran 1,000 miles, still the most I’ve ever run in a year. I completed the “
Summer Solstice Challenge” with Martini and ran 26.34 miles on the Towpath, still the most I've run at one time. I completed 10 races, still the most I've run in one year, including two half marathons and two full marathons, although the four-hour mark still eluded me. Heck, I even
started playing the banjo that year (see
my other blog). And on top of all that, I also met
the woman I would marry three years later, even after I told her about
crossing the puke threshold. What an exciting time!
I ran so much that year that I needed to start a second running log to keep track of it all. I was hyper-focused on breaking four hours in the marathon. However, I did even worse in
my second Akron Marathon than the year before, finishing in 4:30. I was confident in my training that I decided to run the
Towpath Marathon two weeks later, where I set a new personal record at 4:22, but I was still well short of my goal.
Although I didn't achieve my marathon aspiration that year, I set six new PRs and was able to break 1:50 at the
Buckeye Half Marathon. However, the four-hour marathon would elude me for two more years.
The four-hour barrier
In 2009, I ran a little less, but I made massive progress toward reaching my ultimate marathon goal. I set a new PR and finished a little less than five minutes shy of breaking four hours at
that year's Akron Marathon. I decided not to attempt another race that year, finishing the year with 970 miles and completing six races.
I ran even less in 2010, finishing with 831 miles and completing only three races. However, each one was a new PR. I ran my
fastest ever 5K at 22:26, shaving three seconds off my previous best. I ran my
fastest ever half marathon at 1:44:15, shaving four minutes off my previous best. And finally, after five attempts,
I broke four hours at the Akron Marathon, finishing in 3:58:46.
It felt like such a big accomplishment. However, the idea of trying to top that was just too daunting. I know guys who easily qualified for the Boston Marathon. I would have had to shave another hour and change off my personal best. Instead, I sought other challenges.
The barefoot craze
Christopher MacDougall released
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen in 2009. The book chronicled the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico’s Copper Canyon region, a community full of seemingly super-human runners who traverse hundreds of miles on bare feet or wearing thin huarache sandals. MacDougall touted barefoot running as a kind cure-all for running injuries, and the story was so compelling that I decided to give it a try in 2010.
My
first barefoot run in October of that year was a little less than two miles, but I could immediately feel the impact on my calves and feet. Over the years, I incorporated barefoot running into my training and started to seek out
minimalist running shoes that would give me a similar feel as going shoeless.
Racing flats became my first foray into thin, flat, flexible shoes.
Vibram Five Fingers were the first to market a true barefoot-style shoe, with a thin rubber sole connected to a sock-like upper with individual toe sockets to allow full toe splay. I didn’t like how my toes felt in those goofy-ass things. Big names like Merrell and New Balance got into the game, with some decent offerings, my old
Merrell Road Gloves being my favorite and still my highest mileage minimal shoe to date.
Through this blog, I started to get offers from nascent “barefoot running” shoe companies, including current market leaders
Altra and
Xero Shoes (formerly
Invisible Shoes), to
review their products. The early Altras were not great, and I quickly dismissed the two pairs I got to test (
Adams and
Samsons). Meanwhile, Xero Shoes started out specializing in
huarache sandals, but the company eventually made the move to a more traditional shoe with the
Prio. These became my new favorite running shoes, and the company continued to improve on its designs with each new model.
Although I haven’t gone for a true barefoot run in a few years, I still run exclusively in minimalist shoes. I have continued to support Xero Shoes, currently running in their
HFS road shoe and the
Mesa Trail II trail shoes. I like both models, but I recently decided to give Altra another try, purchasing
the King MT 2 trail shoes, as my Xero trail shoes haven’t held up to the rigors of off-road running (or tripping over tree roots).
The marriage life
After finally achieving my sub-four-hour marathon in 2010, my running life started to change. The following year, I got married. The morning after my bachelor party, I ran the
Buckeye Half Marathon again, and then the
2011 Akron Marathon was a couple weeks after our wedding. It took me almost an hour longer to finish than the year before. It would be my last full marathon.
In 2012, my wife and I put together a
relay team for the Akron Marathon, and I completed my leg of the race barefoot. It was my first and only barefoot race. My overall mileage continued to drop from the height of 2008, with 532 miles in 2011 and 376 miles in 2012. Those totals would continue to fall over the next several years as I transitioned into a new phase of life and subsequently a different kind of runner. The 2012 Akron Marathon would be my last race for nine years.
The trail runner
While 2012 marked the end of my time as a marathoner, it marked my transition to primarily being a trail runner. In March of that year, I completed
my first trail race, a 10K at the Oak Hill trailhead in Peninsula, Ohio. I had done
some trail running during the previous few years, but I didn't get my first trail shoes until 2011, with the
New Balance MT101, a precursor to the company's
Minimus lineup.
After spending so much time running the roads around Akron and on the Towpath Trail, it was a treat to explore all the rugged hiking trails throughout the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, including the Buckeye Trail, the Valley Bridle Trail, Wetmore, Langes and others. Even my homebase of Sand Run had good hiking trails in addition to the multipurpose trail I had been running on for years.
I almost exclusively run on trails now. I still use the Towpath and Sand Run’s main path, but I avoid pavement unless I’m competing in a race.
I'm looking forward to my new trail shoes, as the last few pairs I've had kept suffering tears at the toe box. However, my shoe repair skills have greatly improved over the years. Take a closer look at the red shoes in the photo above. My current trail shoes look like something out of Frankenstein, but they get the job done. I'm hoping my new ones hold up better to my constant tripping on tree roots. I'm still waiting for them to ship.
The parenthood life
My
son was born in September 2013, and that was the last time I would run more than 100 miles in a year until 2021. My mileage dropped from 129 to 20 in 2014, increased the next three years to 44, 72 and 93, and then dropped back down to 40, bottoming out at 15 miles in 2019, and then rising back to 40 miles in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being a new parent was all-consuming, especially since my son was born a month premature. Excusing myself for a run was a guilt-inducing experience, even though my wife never expressed any sort of displeasure. I just felt selfish for taking time for myself. My lack of running led me to announce the
official end of this blog, although I've checked back in a couple times over the years.
The return to racing
The pandemic helped spur me back to running. My son was older and didn’t need quite so much attention. Being isolated from people and having to stay home all the time was difficult, and running became a much-needed escape.
While I didn’t run with Martini anymore, as he has gone on to train for increasingly longer races, including 100-mile ultramarathons, parenthood had brought me new running friends in the form of, G & E, the parents of one of my son’s schoolmates. In June 2021, they encouraged me to enter an 8K race as part of the new
Akron Marathon Race Series. It was my first race in nine years. I ran with G the whole way, and we finished with a 13:50 pace. I had never run that distance before, so it was a PR.
That gave me the itch to race again.
Two months later, I entered the 10K as part of the same race series. However, I had injured my foot during training, having I stepped awkwardly on a tree root. (Damn those roots!) It was my first running injury in a decade, and I wasn't fully healed by race day. I ended up reinjuring my foot, suffering a pretty bad sprain that knocked me out of commission for a several weeks. Even so, I ran 226 miles that year, the most I had run since 2012, running in every month but December.
The Burning River 100
The next year brought more new running adventures. I more than doubled my mileage in 2022, as G & E wanted me to join their eight-person relay team for the
Burning River 100, which was the original inspiration for the aforementioned Summer Solstice Challenge. It was cool to finally be a part of this epic race, and I enjoyed following a high-mileage training plan again.
My section was just under 14 miles, from the Valley Picnic area, across the Towpath, to the Valley Bridle Trail, Langes Run, Wetmore, Salt Run and ending at Virginia Kendall. It was a great experience. Burning River was my longest race since 2011 and my longest trail race ever.
A couple months later, I also ran the Home Run for the Homeless for the first time ever that fall. Even though the race starts about a mile from my house, I had never run it before because of Thanksgiving plans.
My mileage dropped down to 160 in 2023, and I didn’t compete in any races that year. I increased my mileage to 200 in 2024 and ran in two 5Ks, with one organized by a conference I attended for work in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the other being the RoadRokr 5K to support my son’s school. That was the one with
my favorite race photo ever.
The Bigfoot 10
In 2025, my mileage increased for the third straight year to 375. We traveled to Greece that summer, and I ran only a couple times while I was there. But I came home and ran the RoadRokr 5K again on very little training, and then I decided I wanted to train for a longer race again, picking the Bigfoot 10-mile trail race at Salt Fork State Park in December last year.
My training plan was pretty solid, although I probably ran too many miles on flat terrain as I was trying to increase my mileage to double digits without straining my body too much. I ran the Home Run for the Homeless again just 10 days before the Bigfoot 10, linking up to run with Martini for the first time in years. By that point I was tapering for the big race, and I was feeling good physically but a little nervous about the trail conditions with expectations for snow, ice and mud.
The Bigfoot race is a two-day, multi-distance event, held on the first weekend in December, with a 50K, 20-miler and 10-miler on Saturday, and then a second, more hiker-friendly 10-miler on Sunday. I chose the Sunday race, which maybe wasn't the smartest decision. By the time I got to the starting line, the trails were in pretty rough shape from Saturday's racers, although the mud was not as bad as I was told past years have been. Leading up the race, the trails closer to home had been covered in snow and ice, but luckily that wasn't a problem at Salt Fork. It was just the mud.
Overall, it was a great race, and I would consider staying overnight at the park lodge if I were to run the race again (which I might). The event rekindled my interest in racing more, and I’m hoping to train for some longer races again in the near future.
The 20th anniversary
And so, here I am, celebrating my 20th anniversary as a runner. By the end of this month, I will have logged 7,000 miles lifetime, and I'll be running my 40th race later this year.
Sometimes I think back to my marathoning days and wonder how I found the time to run so much. Life changes, and you change with it.
I used to put a lot of focus on time, and then I'd get down on myself for not achieving my goals. The Bigfoot 10 was the first time I trained hard for a race without being worried about my finish time. I had a loose goal, which turned out to be realistic. But time wasn’t my focus. Instead I focused on enjoying the community of runners. I ran about half the race with a woman, whom I helped up after a fall. We parted ways at an aid station where she met up with her family. At the finish line, my legs were cramping and forcing me to walk, but another runner who was right next to me at starting line encouraged me to finish strong.
"Success rests in having the courage and endurance and, above all, the will to become the person you are, however peculiar that may be. Then you will be able to say, 'I have found my hero and he is me.'" -- George SheehanSuccess is not a time, it’s a state of mind. I was never very fast, and I’ll likely never be as fast as I was. I’m a solid mid-pack runner, who prides himself on perseverance not speed. While it’s impossible to avoid aiming for a time goal, I refuse to base my enjoyment on running faster than anyone else. I'm only racing the ghost of my past self (and perhaps the couple of people ahead of me in the last quarter mile of a race).
As I enter my third decade of running, I want to focus on being a kind runner. Still grumpy, but kind. Even though I don’t like to talk while I’m out there, it doesn’t mean I can’t be encouraging to others and help that fallen comrade get to the finish line. I want to be that runner who gives that much-needed boost at a difficult time.
A new first ... well, actually, third
UPDATED March 23, 2026: After 20 years, I finally made the podium in a race. On Saturday, March 21, I ran the Lucky Leaping Leprechaun 5K in Canal Fulton, Ohio. I finished in 28:30, a solid six minutes slower than
my fastest 5K, and yet it was fast enough to win third place in my age group. It was a flat course, taking place on the southern portion of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. I started near the back, and steadily picked off runners along the way. The crowded field and narrow path made for a slow first mile at 10:32, but I ran sub-9s the rest of the way. I passed some punk pre-teen right around the third mile marker, and scored a victory for middle-aged runners everywhere.
40th race
UPDATED June 13, 2026: One last milestone to mark during my 20th year of running was competing in my 40th race. After winning my first ever age-group award in March, I ran the Muddy Paws 5-mile trail race in June. It was my first time running the race, and I managed to finish in the Top 40% overall with a 12:50/mile average pace. While 40 races in 20 years only breaks down to two races per year, you have to remember that I went nine years between 2012-2021 without running a single race. My max was 10 races in 2008. Over the last two years, I've challenged myself to complete at least one race per quarter. I was kind of scrambling to find a race for Q2, so I registered for this race at the last minute. It was a loop course at the Pine Hollow trailhead in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, following parts of the Cross Country and Salt Run trails. Although I've been running on trails almost exclusively for the past few years, this was only my fourth trail race ever.
Racing with my kid
UPDATED August 15, 2026: OK, this is the last milestone to mark in this milestone year. For the last three years I have been running the RoadRokr 5K, which benefits my son's school band program. This year, he wanted to sign up with me. At the time of registration, he assured me he would be fine because he hiked three miles with his Scouting troop. Come race day, however, he had barely done any activity this summer. But still, he managed to finish the race in under 45 minutes. I joked with him that he did the "Couch to 5K" plan in one day. I ran with him the whole way, forgetting about the PR and enjoying my first race with my kid.
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Post script: I know most of my runblogger friends have moved on to other things, but I just wanted to get this little celebratory post out into the world. This blog was a big part of my early days as a runner, and having this virtual community was instrumental in my continued development over the years. If any of you are still out there, thank you for your support. You can find me on Instagram, where I post about records, comics, beer and occasionally running. 
