History Introduction

I've always wanted to record an overview of my 12 years of running.  Starting this blog is helping to fulfill that goal.  My running life can broken up into a few eras, and there are a few defining moments that I want to outline so I can look back later and see how far I've come.

This will be the first in a series of posts summarizing my running history.  For now, I'll give the 35,000 foot overview, then dive into each "era" individually.


The first time I ever really ran in a "controlled environment" was way back in the day in 3rd grade.  As part of gym class we had to run a mile.  I still remember doing that mile in ~9:55, feeling completely dead at the end, and getting passed by a bunch of people.  I had no idea at the time, but that day planted the seed that started everything.

Over the years, twice a year we would run the mile as part of the physical fitness test.  My time eventually got into the low 8's, and I think I even went sub 8 once.  I never really counted these as part of my running history, just some very early beginnings.

Once September 1998 rolled around, I was in 7th grade and eligible to join a sports team.  Being a very skinny, uncoordinated, and unskilled person, I wasn't good at anything.  So I decided to join the Cross Country team.  I really don't remember how I came up with this, or what led me to make that decision.  In hindsight it would became the single most important decision of my entire life.

The first day of practice was the beginning of my 1st running life.  This era lasted from that practice to my final 1600m race in Spring Track in May of 2004 as a High School Senior.

From the day I graduated in June 2004 through July 5th, 2007, I entered the dark ages, or the lean years.  On that fateful day, July 5th, my 2nd running life began.

This continued through November 14, 2009.  Once I crossed the finish line of the Richmond Marathon on that day, the next and most important era began.  I like to call it the "Fast Dan" era.  I can't take credit for the catchy name, that goes to various people in Back on My Feet Baltimore that came up with, and spread it; I just jumped on the bandwagon!

Stay tuned for a summary (as best I can remember it) of my "1st running life."