It’s been HOW many miles??
I'm sure I've written about this
before, and if it seems familiar and/or boring, I apologize. But now
that the streets & sidewalks of Marquette are rapidly losing
their snow earlier that usual, I've started to think that pretty soon
I should break out a new pair of running shoes. Why is that a big
deal?
Well, around this time of the year, or
at least this time of the year when the snow begins to melt, I do
that. You’re supposed to change your running shoes every 500 or so
miles, and if you figure that I run 10 or 12 or so miles a week
(sometimes more, sometimes less) then I need a new pair approximately
once every year. And since I don’t want to take brand-new running
shoes out in the snow and the muck (you know, like the months of
October through (usually) March or April around here), I usually wait
until the snow & the gunk is gone and then switch the shoes out.
And that's crossed my mind this weekend (after all, I needed
something OTHER that dead computers to think about)
But that’s really neither here nor
there. Here’s actually what here or there--I started running when
I moved back to Marquette in 1988. That’s been 32 (yikes!) years.
If I run on average, and we're averaging low here, 10 miles a week,
that’s 520 (or so) miles a year. And if I’ve been doing that for
over 32 years now, you know what that means?
I have run, in my life, almost 17,000
miles. I have now run almost halfway around the Earth.
My feet hurt just typing that!
16,640 (to be specific) miles in 32
years. Wow. And you know what’s scary? There are SO many people
who’ve run further than I in the last three (and counting) decades
that it boggles the mind. I mean, I’m just a recreational runner.
There are people out there who’ll do 500 miles in a month, and
don’t even break a sweat. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to
do that.
I don’t remember most of the 16,640
miles I’ve run, mostly because my mind is occupied with thoughts
other than running while I’m out running, but there are several
jaunts that definitely stick in my head, and probably will forever.
One would be the three miles I ran by myself, early one Saturday
morning, in September, 2004, through the winding and narrow streets
of Bayeux, France. Another would be a VERY sticky & sweaty 8
miles in Marquette back in ’08 or ’09, one of my long, meandering
Saturday runs when it was 80 degrees at 8 in the morning. I just
loved the thought of it being that warm that early. And a third
might be a couple of years ago when we were visiting Loraine's
parents, I went out running, and found myself getting caught in a
massive thunderstorm that almost turned into a tornado.
Trust me--you DON’T forget runs like
that, even after racking up almost 17,000 miles.
I supposed I should set a goal of
running at least 25,000 miles in my life, so I can say (at least in
jest) that I’ve run around the world. So far, it’s taken me 32
years to get two-thirds of the way there. I still plan on running
for another 32 years, so I suppose the goal is possible. We’ll
just have to see if my feet, my knees, and the new shoes I should
start using for the first time hold out.
Wish me luck!!
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