I started running when I was 13 years of age. My friend and I began training during the summer to prepare for a local road race in the coming few weeks. To my surprise, I did fairly decent. I was able to place in the top 20. I decided that running just might be the thing for me.

When I entered high school, I immediately signed up for the cross-country team. Unfortunately, the whole team had been practicing in the summer and many were better than me. I struggled just to keep up in the beginning few weeks.

The first race was very intimidating for me. Being a freshman, I found that many of my opponents were much larger than me and seemed much better than I could ever hope to be. I just told myself that I would do the best I could...and I did better than I ever thought I could. I finished the race in 8th place overall and I was the first of my team to cross the finishing line!

As the season and my freshman year progressed, I became more and more confindent with respect to my running. I joined the indoor and outdoor track teams in the subsequent seasons where I ran the 1 and 2 mile race ...usually back to back (what a killer).

My running seemed to be doing pretty well, so I decided to sign up for some local road races. I had a lot of fun, but I wanted a bigger challenge. Running small races of 5k to 10k in distance just didn't cut it anymore. I decided to train and then sign up for the New Bedford Half Marathon. I was surprised that I was able to finish it and even more surprised at my time 1:26:27. Nearly an average 7 minute mile! In the subsequent year I ran the race again as well as the North Shore Half Marathon, but I still wanted something bigger.

When I was 17 years of age, I began training for the Boston Marathon. At the peak of my training I ran around 90 miles a week, which was very stupid to say the least. So, on race day my dad drove me down to Hopkington where I assembled with the rest of the bandits. I thought for sure that I would drop out of the race before I hit the 20 mile mark. My dad had given me a lot of extra money just in case I couldn't make it and would have to find some other mode of transportation back to Boston (other than my feet). To my astonishment, I was able to make it and finished in a time of 3:09:11. Of course, I couldn't walk normally for about a month afterwards, but it was worth it. The next year I ran it with a number, but did not beat my pr set the year before.

Currently, I am in college. I am not running nearly as much as I used to or would like to, but I am hanging in there. I find it hard to motivate myself because I have already ran the longest official race on record. Oh well, at least I still have the memories.