The End of An Era

I am graduating from college in less than a week now, which brings with it a lot of very exciting things: a degree, a new job, moving to a new town, etc.  It also means the end of my scholastic running career.  It is a little bittersweet: on the one hand, I started running in the context of a school team and it has grown to be a pretty big part of who I am.  On the other hand, I think that after 8+ years, I am ready to take a slightly more relaxed approach to running.

As a member of a team, I always felt that I should run every race as hard as I could, regardless of the way I was feeling.  This led to both more successes and blow-ups than I otherwise would have experienced.  My last race in a school uniform was a 5k in a championship meet (after I also ran the 1500m) where I was tired but started out with the leaders to give myself the best chance to score.  I ended up fading towards the back and finishing in the low-17 minute range, but I was proud of the way that I ran.


I have had a lot of success through the years, from state championships and school records (and a state record!) in high school to fast times in college.  I will probably have very limited opportunity to run either track and field or cross country again, so any future races I do will likely be done on the roads.

I don't yet know what my plans for running in the future are but I have decided that I won't run until I can't stand not to.  I expect that My first run back will be on May 30th, but I'm not holding myself to that.  In any case, I definitely want my nagging aches and pains to go away.  For now, it's time to hang up the spikes, take a long rest, and then start something brand new!

-Lane