A peak at my random running start

I got double tagged last week by Bean @ Just Plodding Along & Amy @ Recipe for Disaster for the Lovely Blog Award (thanks ladies) I meant to get this out sooner, but to say I've been busy would be a huge understatement.

I've  seen a lot of these types floating around, all of which require you to post 7 random things about yourself--- to which I ask, why is it always 7?? 

So doing what I do best, I'm breaking the rules and I'm going to  post 11 random things about myself, but to keep it with the theme of this blog, it will be my random running story. The bulk of this is from middle school and high school- aka before digital photos. I don't have a scanner so you'll have to go sans photos for this one 

I know there are people, lots of them, that just run for fun and don't have a lot of goals in mind. I am not one of those people-- a peak into my competitive nature...

1. When I was in 7th grade I played softball. I've always been tall and decently fast (depending on what we're comparing it to), so the  track coach pushed me hard to come out for 8th grade season.  Considering track was co-ed instead of a bunch of lesbians (no offense) I thought it would be a good change and it was. 

2. At the end of my first season I got MVP--- BOOM in all my 13 year old glory. 

3. Also at the end of my first season the cross country coach (we had separate track & cc coaches) wrote me a letter and handed it to me at the last meet discussing how much potential he thought I could bring to the cross country team. I thought it was weird  because I could run a 400m fast and perform in the high jump, but how would that translate to a 5k? The clincher that made me join?? Good ol Scott was on the team and that is when I was head over heels for him. Yes, same Scott that was on animal print pants outta control ultra team from a few weeks back. (he knows all this now, so I can say it openly) 

4. Scott quit his sophomore year, and without him as a distraction, I got a little bit more serious about running. I became our #1 runner and was named MVP-- BOOM for me being my rad 15 year old awkward self. 

5. The reason I was awkward was because I was 5'11 and about 130--- gangly for sure. My nickname was lanky (which I didn't mind) and Clydesdale (which I did) Since I would do 400s and 800s, I was able to use my full stride since its a sprint, hence why I 'looked like a horse'. 

6. During some down time in the hotel room at one of our travel meets. one of the guys was coming on to me and jokingly pinned me to the bed. I told him to get off me and when he wouldn't I kicked him in the face--- leaving a lovely bruise and scrape. He was pissed and replaced the nickname 'Clydesdale' with 'hooves' --- ugh I hated that name. After that though, his face served as a reminder to not mess with me. 

7. I had a big problem pumping my arms when I ran. Generally my arms would just be in a permanent fixed 90 degree angle by my side and never move. My track coach would get frustrated with me so I used to have to run in practice holding a baton in each hand, forcing me to pump. "ARMS Lisa, ARMS!" was a common sentence shouting out daily at practice.  To this day I have to remind myself to move my arms. 

8. Before every 4x400 race, my girlfriend Megan and I had this little dance we had to do with eachother--- every.single.trackmeet. Although its def not as sweet as my mc hammer dance moves or lmfao dance moves, it may be time to whip it out for Ragnar Ultra Relay in a month! (ladies... I need a partner for it)

9. The summer of my junior and senior year of high school I started to do heptathalons (7 track events over 2 days)

highjump

shot put

javelin

100m hurdles

200 m

long jump

800m

Junior year I placed 2nd , and senior year I placed 1st. 

10. I was recruited by the asst  track coach at Miami University for high jump, however there was a transition of coaches and a lot of miscommunication / lack of communication, so they found someone to replace me. When I get to school and tried to contact the coach he explained what all happened and decided to put me in the heptathlon. I didn't last long--- I was frustrated that I had to go to practice every day, yet there were only about 3 meets the whole  year that offered the heptathlon as an option, so I quit. (stupid stupid mistake)

11. That was the last time I ran consistently, age 19, until I moved to Nashville when I was 25. It's taken me a long time for me to find my competitiveness again, but slowly I'm finding my groove  :0)

So I'm breaking the rules again. I'm not going to tag anyone in particular to repeat this post, BUT i'd love to hear if anyone has anything random / funny about running that you'd like to share!