Welcome

I have never written a blog before.  And perhaps I am a bit presumptuous that anyone besides myself will end up reading this.  But even if only for posterity's sake, I choose to dive headlong into the blogging universe to create a detailed diary of my running - that is, more detailed and more personal than the numbers-oriented Excel spreadsheet I have been maintaining for the past 3+ years.

Cliff Notes version of my running story:
 I ran in high school and liked it a lot.  I was decent (4:30 miler, 16:10 cross country) but not scholarship material.  I never pretended or intended to be.  I just liked running.  The camaraderie of being on a team, the discipline of going out and working hard every day to get better, but most of all the feeling I got when I ran - the proverbial runner's high.
 I got to college and fell into my studies, met my future wife, graduated, started working 50 hour weeks, got married,  bought a house, started a family, etc.  Life happened.  Running did not.
Flashforward to my 30th birthday - February 2008.  I step on a scale and it tells me I weigh 196 lbs.  I weighed 165 lbs. in high school.  My back hurt all the time.  I was constantly lethargic and weak.  Something definitely was not right.  Coincidentally, my younger brother Anthony announces his intentions of running a marathon in 16 weeks in June.  Do I want in?
Initially I scoff, because I am fat and slow.  I am married and have a soon to be 4 year old daughter.  I physically can't, nor do I have the time to, train for a marathon.  But the thought intrigues me.  I tell him I will try to help him train by running a few miles a couple days a week.

And that's how it all started again.

I now have two daughters, ages 6 and 2.  I have completed four marathons (including that painful first one), but none yet to my full potential due to improper training, injuries, and in one case plain bad luck.  I have also completed 5 half marathons, each increasingly faster but still nowhere near my potential for the same reasons.

I am finally back to 165 lbs. again.  This will be the year I run to my potential.  And this is the blog to prove it.

2011 Goals:

Wildwood Half-Marathon, Aug. 28th:
Gold: 1:18.xx
Silver: 1:20.xx
Bronze: 1:22.xx

Baltimore Marathon, Oct. 15th:
Gold: 2:47.xx
Silver: 2:54.xx
Bronze: 2:59.59