My Requisite "How I Became a Distance Runner" Post

A year ago today, I thought the idea of a half marathon was crazy. I thought, “Who would willingly run that many miles?”

Apparently, me. Oh, and multiply that times two.

My journey started off much like many others: to lose weight. Sometime in February of 2012, I got the notion to join weight watchers to try to drop a few of those extra college pounds. Being the responsible dieter that I am (was?), I took up an exercise regimen as well. It began with 30 minutes a day on the stair master or walking on the treadmill. It didn’t take too long for me to start seeing results, so I decided to step it up.

While this was going on, I was just starting my first semester of graduate school for business. It was only a month and half into it and I hated it. I found my new diet and exercise schedule giving me something else to concentrate on throughout the week.

About a month of this went by and my walking on the treadmill turned into intervals of 5 minutes running and 10 minutes walking. Before I knew it, I was running six miles straight again. I felt on top of the world. It was at this point that the idea started to simmer in my mind, could I really do a half-marathon?

After thinking it over, I decided to take the plunge. I signed up for my first half-marathon. I registered for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon, a race that wouldn’t take place for over six months. I thought it gave me plenty of time to train and be prepared. From this point on, my mind was racing about, well, racing. The idea of 13.1 miles seems so foreign to me, as the most I had ever run was a 10k. My reasoning: if I could run six, I could run 13.

And so the training began.

My first long run was memorable. I signed up with Footworks because I wanted to know how many miles I was running (didn’t have a Garmin yet). I got up at five o’ clock in the morning and I made my way to Miami Sequarium, there meeting spot for the week. We had an 8 mile interval run at a 10 minute per mile pace. When we finished, I felt more accomplished than I have felt in a long time.

For my own reasons, I didn’t stick with Footworks. And to be honest, I am glad I didn’t because I may not have met the team that I now consider my second family.

I learned about Team FDC from a college friend who had posted pictures on Facebook from her running the Miami ING Half Marathon and Disney Princess Half Marathon. To be honest, she was truly an inspiration to me (thanks Ali!). Once I learned a little bit about the team, I decided that come August, I would join. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait that long.

One hot summer morning, as I was cooling down next to my car after a 10 mile run, I saw something that caught my attention. I noticed a man putting his car keys on his car tire and walking away. Apparently I must have looked shocked because he noticed and said, “If you ever want to steal my car, you know where to look.” I laughed. As we got to talking about running, I found out he was training for Ironman (I had no idea what this was at the time, so I assume I nodded and tried to play it cool like I knew what that was!). When he asked who I was running with, I replied that I wasn’t training with anyone at the moment but when August rolled around I was planning on running with a team called “ Team FDC”.

“Do you know them?” is something along the lines of what I said next.

“I am FDC. That is my name. Ralph Fernandez De Castro.  It’s my team”, is something along the lines of how he replied.

Our little conversation and the irony of meeting him the way I did will always be a good memory. From that day on, I was part of something bigger.

Throughout the rest of the summer, I trained for my big race, the big 13.1. I became so enamored with the sport that I signed up for the Miami ING Half Marathon, the Disney World Half Marathon and the Disney Princess Half Marathon. To put it in running terms, I had caught the “running bug”.

I hit a roadblock at the beginning of July when I started to have pain in my foot. I took a few days off from running in the hopes that it would sort itself out. It turned out I had a mild case of tendinitis in my achilles and peroneal tendons. I was told I couldn’t run for at least a few weeks. I was devastated. 

At the same time that this was happening, FDC was creating a sub-group for people who wanted to work on speed or who were already up in miles from the summer for races in the fall. I was able to run with the team once before my injury took me away for the next month or so.

Right before I had gotten injured, I had been mulling over whether to go for the full marathon in January which would be ING Miami. I was really skeptical about whether or not it was a good idea, whether I could do it, etc. Of course, when the injury hit, these thoughts went out the window. Little did I know, things have a way of working themselves out.

When I was able to start running again at the end of August, I had done the math and figured out that if I didn’t miss a training run from then until the race, I would be able to get all of my miles in, starting from scratch.

I literally started off with one mile. The next week it was two and then three and so on and so forth. I ran four miles in a hurricane during the weekend of my birthday (another memorable moment). Before I knew it, I was back to 10 miles and climbing. When it was time to run my first 13 as a training run, I was a bit anxious about it. My mom comforted me in saying that I was only one more than 12, not to worry about it. She was right and I finished off my 13.1 successfully.

It was also around this time that I got talked into switching my half marathon registration to a full marathon for the ING Miami in January. How does one get talked into such a thing? Well, ask everyone on my team. It seems that coach “Diablo” knows how to talk people into willingly running 26.2 miles.

Three weeks later, I was at my first half marathon race, the Disney Wine and Dine Half. I was beyond excited. I had made it back from injury and was going to finally be able to do what I had trained all summer for. It was incredible. Everything about the race was perfect, even the fact that my Garmin died before the race had started. I attribute that to me finishing 10 minutes quicker than what I had hoped for.

As soon as I got back from racing Disney, I got to training for my full marathon. The training was intense; we did speed work, bridgework, and fartleks (I now know what it is and can say it without giggling). Oh and by the way, if I ever meet Mr. Yasso himself, I will tell him what I think of his “800’s”.

Just before the New Year started, I was asked to do something I wanted to do really badly: run Ragnar. This race, 198 miles from Miami to Key West run by a team of 12 was the epitome of cool things to do that involve running. After much convincing and cajoling to help me with my work situation, I said yes. I had a race the next weekend, the Disney World Half, but I didn’t care-I was running Ragnar. And what an experience it was. I laughed for an entire weekend and made new friendships. And of course, I ran. A total of 21 miles no less.

A week later I completed my second half marathon and cut three minutes off my last race to finish with a time of two hours and 7 minutes. I also got to cheer on a new friend during her goal to cross two finish lines in two days for her “Goofy Challenge” (Vivi, we may be doing this again next year, just a warning!). Talk about a great two weeks.

I am now less than 48 hours away from my first full marathon. I just had a coworker ask me how I feel and I responded with, “anxious, nervous, but so excited.”

This is exactly how I feel. I have waves of confidence and lows of self-doubt. Am I really ready for this? I find myself crying uncontrollably at the idea of all of this and all the things that could go wrong. But then, in a glimmer of confidence, I think of a person I never got to meet, Aaron Cohen. I think about what he said in his own letter of why he runs:

“I run because it makes me smile.”

And do you know what, that is the absolute truth. It is literally that simple.

Running started off as a way to drop some weight and transformed into something totally different. It isn’t about counting calories or how many pounds I gained or lost. It is more than that. It has become my stress reliever, my socialization hours (day?), and my happiness. It is where I am a proud member of two great teams, FDC and Diablos.

Since I started this with all of you, my team, I have found a newfound happiness. And of course I know it can be taken away at any moment. But that is what makes me want to keep going.

In the past 11 months, I have made new friends, I got a new job, and I started a new master’s program that I love.  After I run on Saturdays, I go to eat with my teammates who have a knack of turning breakfast into lunch (mimosas turn into beer, omlettes turn into pizza, etc.). I check status updates all day from my running friends on Facebook.

All of this, for me, translates into smiles. Happiness.

So, on  Sunday, when I am running and maybe I feel like I was an idiot for signing up for such a “crazy” thing, I will remember Aaron, I will remember my team, and I will remember that at the end of the day, I am happy. This, all of you, makes me happy. And for that I am thankful.