The Picture That Started It All

I have not always been a runner. I did not run track in high school (though, I wish I did). I ran a little bit when I lived in Vancouver, BC, even going as far as buying a good pair of fitted running shoes. I managed to work my way up to a 7K loop. The running, however, stopped because I didn't care to run in the rain ... and it rains a lot in Vancouver.

After I moved Moscow, ID, I picked up running again. This was primarily in response to workouts related to the P90X regiment that I had started. My feet and legs were taking a beating with Plyo X and I found Kempo X to be less than exhilarating. To supplement these cardio workouts, I started to run again. For about a month, I ran a few days a week, and I even topped out at 5 miles. The running stopped when I moved to Milwaukee in June 2013.

One of my longest runs in Moscow, ID

For the next year, I was pretty sedimentary. I had completed my dissertation, fueled by chai lattes and Mr. Goodbars and was adjusting to the hectic life of being an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee's School of Information Studies. After my first year, my girlfriend and I decided to go to Peru for a much-deserved and needed vacation.

This is the moment where I tell you that I struggled to get around in Peru because I had gained too much weight during the previous year. Nope.

We had a blast in Peru and the only things that limited our activities was the altitude. There was, however, one picture from our trip that caught my attention:

It is hard to tell from the image, but that is Machu Picchu in the background. We are standing at the Sun Gate at 6 AM after doing the four-day hike to the site. The picture does not do the view any justice (below is a better picture).

When I looked at the picture on my computer what I noticed was that round ball protruding above my belt line. This could have been an illusion. My backpack's belt was on pretty tight, but the image bothered me and served as the excuse I needed to be more active.

For my next post I will explain how I went from saying I will never run races to wanting to run a marathon.