Why I Started Running...

I began my running career in high school, and I've never felt like my story was one that was unique to just me.  As a current high school coach, I now understand the importance of looking for numbers wherever you can find them.

I entered high school at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis in 1996 with a vague hope of playing basketball for a school that was really at the peak of basketball success in St. Louis.  At the time, my school boasted two future Division I players, one of whom (Larry Hughes) later became a Top 10 pick in the NBA Draft.  As a freshman with very little self-confidence, I eventually decided I was too scared to even try out and gave up hope of playing any sport in high school.

I was fortunate enough to have been enrolled in PE class with Chris Scott, who was a 3 sport coach at CBC, one of which was Cross Country.  In the course of 1 semester, we had to run the Mile for a physical fitness test twice.  On no training, I ran miles of 6:54 and 6:35, and Coach Scott immediately began to recruit me to run Cross Country the next fall.  I was wholly against this, as running those mediocre miles had both resulted in severe asthma attacks.  I also had no idea that I was capable of running more than a mile at a time.  Fortunately for me, Coach Scott was persistent, even contacting my parents on report card day to try to get me to run.  Eventually he convinced me to come to summer running and see if I liked it.

I remember my first day of summer running, where Coach Scott took all the new runners on a 3 mile loop course, starting on Clayton Road, down to Skinker, running up to Wydown (hence the name, "Wydown Loop) and turning onto Big Bend before finishing back on Clayton.  Coach Scott kept the entire group together and stopped for a few minutes about halfway.  This was a brilliant move by him which allowed the entire group to get back together, and to me it gave me the rest I needed to finish out the loop.

You can see Clayton,Skinker,Wydown and Big Bend forming our loops

Summer running met 3 days a week and every day for the first few weeks was spent on the Wydown loop.  After that first run, we were sent on our own, with coaches running the loop up and down to check on the strung out runners.  This was when my first bit of running stubbornness kicked in.  I made it a goal each day to run a bit further on the loop before I stopped to walk.  For me running this same loop every day gave me a concrete gauge of my improvement and I could see how much stronger I was getting each day.

After I had mastered the Wydown loop I was moved up to the Forsyth loop (this was the next turn on Skinker after Wydown), which was roughly 4 miles.  By the end of the summer I had this loop mastered as well, and had gotten to the point where I could cover 6 miles at a time with little struggle.


I will never forget our last day of summer running.  At this point I had been put in a group with the next season's Junior Varsity runners, and on the final day we were told to run 8 miles.  For me this was unheard of, and for the JV runners it was an annoyance.  In an act of defiance I won't soon forget, we ran into Forest Park (about 1/2 mile from school) and to the St. Louis Zoo, where we found an air-conditioned building to sit in for about 25 minutes before returning to school.  We never did get caught for that stunt, and my first 8 mile run was postponed until that fall.

My first season of Cross Country, which was my Sophomore year of high school, was a mixed bag.  I established myself early on as a top Junior Varsity runner, regularly finishing in the top 5 on JV (on a team of 60+ runners total).  I ran my first 5k close to 26 minutes, but by the end of the season had run 19:02.  I remember crossing the finish line for that race thinking it would be the last race I ever ran, as Cross Country had been a great experience, but I had decided it was too difficult to continue on the next year.  Again, however, other people had other plans.  The other JV runners convinced me to come out for track, and I begrudgingly agreed.

My first track season was what really got me hooked on running.  For whatever reason, I was immediately smitten with the shorter, more intense races that track season brought.  I spent my entire first track season running the 1600 and 800, posting respectable times for a first year runner, most notably a 4:51 mile that gave me my first ever win in any type of running event.  Myself and a friend of mine had spent the entire season racing to see who would break 5:00 first, and then once we both had the bragging rights were to go to who had the fastest time at the end of the year. I was the first under 5:00 and I also had the fastest time at the end of the season.  Running the mile is what got me hooked on running, and I was convinced that running Cross Country the next fall would only help my mile times.  Apparently my track exploits had caught the attention of the Varsity runners, because that summer they pulled me aside and told me that I was now going to be training with them.  This wasn't the coaches' decision, this was the older runners seeing something in me that told them I may be able to help the team in the future.  It was that gesture that I truly feel is what finally turned me into a runner.  From that point forward, I knew I had found a new passion in my life.