“Everyone is built for running.” — Eric Orton, page 203.

What a fantastic book. The night I first picked it up intending to read a couple chapters Ohio addiction centers ended with me forcing myself to stop and go to bed after tearing through half the book. Months later, I still haven’t stopped thinking about it. There’s plenty here even if you have no interest in running, and I wholeheartedly recommend reading it.

My first introduction to Born to Run and the nascent (now ascendent) barefoot running movement was this October, 2009 New York Times video and blog entry, The Roving Runner Goes Barefoot. A few months later, after repeatedly seeing the book mentioned around the web, I finally decided I might as well read it too.

This was towards the beginning of the year when, after about three years of running regularly, I decided to start taking running a little more seriously. In addition to reading the book, I also joined New York Road Runners, applied for the 2010 NY Marathon (didn’t get in) and have more than doubled my average weekly miles.

Like many others, I found the book to be profoundly inspirational, bordering on life-changing, and I ended up with a lot to say. This post is sort of the introduction to a series of posts directly or indirectly inspired by Born to Run. As they’re finished I’ll be linking them here.

• Born to Run: Something of an Epilogue
• Running Technique

The book is filled with quotable passages, but this from chapter 27 (page 213) really stuck with me because it mirrors my own experience:

“Because I was eating lighter and hadn’t been laid up once by injury, I was able to run more; because I was running more, I was sleeping great, feeling relaxed, and watching my resting heart rate drop. My personality had even changed: The grouchiness and temper I’d considered part of my Irish-Italian DNA had ebbed so much that my wife remarked, “Hey if this comes from ultrarunning, I’ll tie your shoes for you.” I knew that aerobic exercise was a powerful antidepressant, but I hadn’t realized it could be so profoundly mood stabilizing and–I had to use the word–meditative.” (page 212)

The ideas and stories in Born to Run have inspired me to run farther and much more often. As a result, I’m feeling great, physically and emotionally and genuinely enjoying all of it.

Three weeks ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Last week, she became a survivor.

In honor of my mom, this Sunday, September 14th, I will be running in my first race, the Komen Foundation’s NYC Race For The Cure. Please consider making a donation, no amount is too small.

Update: The race was an amazing event, possibly the biggest crowd I’ve ever been a part of. It was also incredibly emotional and inspiring.

Thanks to everyone who donated, we raised over $1,600 in less than a week!

Ran the Sunrise Lake loop this morning. Sunrise Lake’s elevation is 1,440 feet above sea level, which, considering that I normally run at sea level, made the hills seem that much more difficult.

Ran the 4.5 mile Hudson River route with Harris. Started out at dusk, which was amazing.

Four miles in 35 minutes on the treadmill.

Three miles in 25 minutes on the treadmill, I started off slow instead of stretching. Various body parts felt good. Followed up with lots of stretching and iced knees.

My left knee was pretty messed up after the five mile run back on August 12th. I saw the sports medicine doctor again a few days after that and she advised taking a few weeks off to let my knees recover. Tonight was the 12th day, things have been feeling pretty good for several days now.

The other thing she pointed out was that my experimenting with off the shelf arch-support insoles (my feet have hurt for a long time) was probably a big part of my knee pain. Legs seem to be very precisely balanced, the hips, knees, ankles and feet all affect one another more than it seems they would. I now have a prescription for orthotics and some medieval looking thing called a night splint. That’s only supposed to be worn for 4-6 weeks, but it would be nice to wake up in the morning and not have the first 15 minutes on my feet be excruciating.

Until I get the Nike+iPod thing, I’m going to post my runs here and just keep bumping it to the top.

Sunday July 29:

4 miles on the treadmill

Tuesday July 31:

4 miles on the west side with Harris and Kai. We went before lunch at around 1pm, it was hot.

August 2:

5.5 Miles in 46 minutes. Personal best by 10 minutes and 1 mile.

August 5:

5 miles in 40 minutes. I was angry about something when I started so I ran the first three miles pretty fast.

August 8:

2.5 miles, sort of fast. Ran after an exhausting day.

August 12:

5 miles up First Ave to 64th and then down Second. Hills kicked my butt, left knee was a bit tight. Route

August 16

3 miles on the treadmill at the Y. My left knee is sore.

August 20

2 miles on the treadmill, after a lot of stretching and 3 miles on a stationary bike. Felt fine and could have kept going, but my knees are still hurting more than they should be.

this post should really be a category with multiple short posts. Adding to to do list…