My First Five Miles That Went By Without Thinking

by Anna
(New York City)

For me, a really great run is a run that I'm not thinking about how far I am or how much farther I have to go. I remember the first time I ever lost track of time while running, and that was the moment I knew I was in love.

It was June of 2006. I had been running outdoors for about 4 months. Before that, I had only run on a treadmill.

I was training for my first marathon and every run was a combination of, "Am I there yet?" "If this is so hard, how in the world am I going to run 26.2 miles!?" and "Wow, I can't believe I just ran that far...I'm capable of way more than I thought I was."

But mostly I spent my runs up 'till that point watching the mile markers pass and thinking about how much farther I had to go before I got the the finish line. I was in love with the idea of being a runner and of running a marathon, but I wasn't in love with the act of running.

But this day was different. It was a beautiful June day and I was running a 5 mile race in Central Park. It was one of those days where the weather is perfect, everyone is out, walking, running, biking, screaming at their kids, skating, tanning...

I had my iPod on and I was listening to a mix tape of 70's Rock music. I remember running around this one curve, everything was green...the new green that hasn't yet been faded by the long summer sun...it was just beautiful and I realized I was more than 4 miles into a 5 mile race and I hadn't even noticed!

On my iPod was playing that song by Elvin Bishop, I Fooled Around and Fell in Love. It couldn't have been a more perfect song to mark the moment and I have since considered it my running anthem.