Hi, my name is Doug. I ran cross country and track in high school. Even though I had numerous athletic scholarship offers to run in college, I stopped running. At the time of my graduation, I had the 1 mile and 2 mile school records for the track team. All of my personal bests were done during this time ranging from 440 yards to half marathon. That all took place over 20 years ago.
Since that time, I have gained a few pounds and did years of smoking. I mixed running and smoking for a few years beginning when I turned 30. I would have bouts of smoking and not and I even had periods when I would smoke in the mornings and run in the afternoons. I thought I was enjoying the best of 2 worlds.
I quit smoking for good in the past year and May 2011 also marked one full year of running (excluding short breaks due to injuries). I keep my all time PR's from my high school days and I also keep new PR's since I started running again.
My short term goal is to run a 5k race in under 20 minutes before the end of 2011. My best time ever is 17:02 and my worst 5k was over 34 minutes around 2003-2004. If I can attain my goal, I may start trying longer distances.
I write this blog to track my forward progress, remember my injuries along the way so that I can improve my recovery processes, and hopefully give the ability for others to learn from my work and not fall into my same pitfalls.
