The Starting Line

What got you into running?

My answer to that question is fairly banal. Incredibly banal, actually. 

Reading. 

Really, reading got me into running.

Turn back the clock to August 2018. I’d been living in Sacramento, California for about one year, drawn to the city from the east coast due to a new job. A year into the move, I felt pretty good. Professionally, I mean. Physically, I was a mess. 

At 5’6” (perfect size for hide and seek, in case anyone wants to form a team), I weighed roughly 175 lbs. Now, that’s not a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily a good thing either. For me, the weight was, well, a weight. I tired easily, sweated an embarrassing amount, and generally felt sluggish. Body pangs plagued me, and a steady diet of fast food probably didn’t help matters. I didn’t feel like a 27-year-old, that’s for sure.

After my annual physical, my doctor said my liver enzymes were elevated. Now this wasn’t news to me. For the past six years, I’d heard much the same from all my doctors. Yet, I never made a change in my lifestyle or habits. 

“I’ll address it later,” I always told myself. 

This time was different. Following my physical, I scheduled an ultrasound, and sure enough, a fatty liver lingered beneath my soft flesh. Based on my bloodwork, my doctor recommended I attend a prediabetes class. If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is. 

Right then and there, I decided to make a change. I started going to the gym, spending an hour each session on the stationary bike. And while biking, I read. I read stories about feats of endurance, about humans seemingly doing the impossible. You don’t have to look hard to find these stories. From Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run (I know, cliche, but it’s a great book) to Bernd Heinrich’s Why We Run, these books changed everything for me. I found myself entranced by marathoners and ultra runners. Even more enticing was the fact that these feats weren’t just physical. They were mental, requiring bottomless wells of fortitude. I admired the hell out of it. 

So I started running. And I kept running. It wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t excellent. At the start, that is. Oftentimes, I returned to my apartment in a wheezing state, angry, and hellbent on swearing off the sport, convinced it was too much for my body to handle. There were many down days, but there were also up days. And as I continued hitting the pavement and trails, the up days began to outnumber the down days. 

Eventually, I signed up for my first race, the Folsom Blues Half Marathon (held on Oct. 20, 2019). I ran the race in 2 hours 15 minutes and 39 seconds. Not amazing, but my goal was simply to finish, just to convince myself that I had it in me to persevere. A handful of races followed. I ran the Capitol 5K (Dec. 7 2019) in 24:34; the Super Sunday Run 10K (Feb. 2, 2020) in 51:18, and the Davis Stampede Half Marathon (Feb. 23, 2020) in 1:58:58. The steady improvements bolstered my confidence and further fueled my newfound interest. 

I plan to sign up for more races in the future, increasing my distances and working my way up to marathons and ultras (lofty goals, I know). 

A quick status update: I’m pleased to report that during this journey, I’ve lost around 35 lbs. I'm quite proud of this. Overall, I feel more energetic than I did in 2018.

So what is this? What is Sloth Speed? Mainly, it’s an informal blog to keep me accountable, but it’s also a way for me to share my silly ruminations about running, and, ideally, a way to meet like-minded folks. 

A novelty t-shirt I bought online inspired the blog’s name. “Sloth Running Team” is written on the shirt, and accompanying the sloth image is the tagline “We’ll Get There When We Get There.” That tagline perfectly captures my mentality towards running. I’m not out to be the head of the pack. That’s an impossibility. All I’m out to do is my personal best, while simultaneously having a radical time and enjoying the journey.

I’m still new to running, but it’s a sport I’ve found immensely valuable, one that’s made me a more patient person. By sharing my thoughts, I hope to connect with other runners across the globe. 

My story isn’t unique, and I hope that’s what brings us together. Running in solitude is great, but running with the pack is sublime.  

See you on the trails.