Tagged - And I'm It (for now)

I have been tagged. Victoria (aka Victwa on the Runners World Discussion Forum) hit me, and now I get to share (hopefully not too much) a little about myself and my running with all of you good people. By the way, if you haven't checked out her blog I recommend it. She writes up great reviews of SF Bay Area trails, and includes pics. And she is really nice, too. And fast. And tough. Just visit her blog, already!

Here's how it works:

I answer 5 questions about my own running here, and then at the end I tag 5 more people and post their names. I then go to their blogs and tell them they've been tagged. When they've answered the questions, they go back to this blog and tell me.

1. How would I describe my running 10 years ago?

Ahh, 10 years ago, I can remember it like it was...10 years ago. I had begun running in earnest 11 years ago, and ran my first (and only) marathon in September of 1997. Two weeks later I was at the doctor getting a strange lump checked out, which turned out to be...cancer (HOOray? - not). So, after a couple surgeries, my running fell by the wayside for awhile and 10 years ago I was an on-again off-again runner.

I am happy to report that I have had no recurrence of cancer and my odds of getting it again are about the same as anyone else (HOORAY - for real :-) )

2. What is your best and worst race experience?

Let's get the bad one out of the way first, shall we? It has to be my first ultra, last December at PCTR's Woodside 50k. Now, it has nothing to do with PCTR, the race course, volunteers, weather or any other thing unless the other thing was ME! I was pretty well trained and felt good going into it. But I was concerned with being over hydrated and having to, um, well, "relieve" myself too often - a problem I had been having on numerous training runs. So, in my infinite(less) wisdom, I willfully under hydrated the previous couple days and paid for it with bad cramping and lots o pain. I ended up walking most of the last half, but still managed to finish.

My best race experience - well, that would be my most recent race and first 50 miler at Quicksilver this past May. I had set a number of goals for myself, and despite enduring cramps in my calves (I obviously need to work on that cramping thing a lot more in my training), I managed to exceed all my goals and finish pretty strong.

3. Why do you run?

I run for many reasons. It makes me feel good. I love the challenge. Being outdoors is refreshing, relaxing, wondrous, and inspiring among other things.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

Best piece of advice: Don't get caught up in the excitement and go out too fast in a race - you will pay for it later.

Best piece of advice I have yet to take advantage of: see above.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I hated running earlier in life, primarily because of my experience with it while in the Army. Running in formation with a bunch of hung over fools who are sweating out the previous nights beer binge sucks (equally sucky is BEING one of the aforementioned fools sweating out the previous nights beer binge ;-) )!

So, I'm going to tag the following folks:

Addy
Jean
Michael
Rajeev
Topher

Thanks for the tag, Victoria. And I look forward to reading the posts from the 5 above!