Thirty years running...

After all these years, road running remains our number one sport. I started running with some regularity more than 30 years ago when we moved to White Plains, New York. I was working very hard and fell that the sedentary nature of my new job would kill me. Kid, I had never liked running; I was bad at it, I'd get side aches and really hated the activity. In July 1977, under the sweltering New York heat, I attempted for a few days to run one or two miles, a grueling experience, but it’s only in August 1977 that I became religious about it, and started running daily for about 30 minutes each time. This would become a five-days-a-week regimen that continues today. In 1987 Evelyne joined in my 6 am outing, and ever since, we’ve been running like zealots. Depending on the season, we log 18 to 22 miles per week; almost nothing stops us; we’ve run under snow, sleet, rain and in complete darkness. Today, if we no longer get up at 5:45 am to run, we still prefer the early morning hour. When we travel, packing our running gear takes a minimum amount of space and when we run in a new place, we see things tourists will never even suspect. Over the years, I’ve run in about 20 different countries, more than 20 different North American provinces and states and I have only been bitten once by a mad dog in Danvers, Massachusetts.