Welcome to 13.11

Welcome to 13.11 more than half crazy my blog about running.  Here I will dazzle you with my insights into running and help you work your way into a world class runner.  Actually that's a lie.  I've been looking for (another) place to bother my friends and people I meeting while running with tales about my running outside of what I already post on facebook, twitter (follow me at @drewsant) and runkeeper (@runkeeper).  I hope that I can provide people with some interesting stories and some neat gear and products I find along the way, and perhaps inspire some more people to join me in a race or two.

Let get this out of the way first.  I don't particularly like running.  It hurts, it's time consuming and despite what you might think it cost money.  "So why do you run?" you didn't ask.  Well there are a couple of reasons. 

First and foremost are the health benefits.  I started running to train for a 5K and at that point I was pushing 300 pounds and could only jog about 3 minutes at a time.  As I started a couch to 5K program that I found and not long after I started noticing how much more I could run and how much weight I was losing.  I haven't lost everything I wanted but running has made a big difference in how I live my life.  Plus I like beer, pizza and wings.  The more I run, the more calories I burn.  The more calories I burn the more beer, pizza and wings I can eat.  I've found it's hard to eat and drink your way out of a caloric hole burned by running 13.1 miles no matter how much local cuisine you wish to sample.

The second reason is based on a rule I've found works with almost everything in life.  Running is what you make it.  If you make running fun, it will be fun.  If you make running a chore, it will be a chore, so I choose to make it fun.  I choose to make it fun by seeing new things and meeting new people.  This year I signed up for the a pass that allows me to do any race in the Rock 'n' Roll marathon series.  So far I've been to Vegas, Phoenix and Washington D.C using it, with at least 9 more stops on the way (don't worry I'll bore you with all the details as we move along).  I've been to the Grand Canyon, been white water rafting and met great people on my trips.  Like I said running is what you make it.

The final reason I run is that I like bling.  But more on that in a future post.


Feel free to ask my novice advice and/or join me in a race and hopefully I'll see you back here in the future.