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Ben Ray

Blogging on the road through the Grand Slam of Running

April 17, 2007

Yes, Ricky Bobby.

Ran my own little 5K tonight; took it down to 21:54, which is better than 22:36, which was my previous best. Of course, neither of those was in a race, so they don't REALLY count, but it made me smile.

The best part was that the first mile of my course is pretty flat and fast and has minimal traffic issues, so I was able to blow through it in 5:38...the ego was happy enough to almost climb up the obelisk in Constitution Square park in mid-stride.

Oh, and 10 days, 8 hours.

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About Me

I'm a senior at Centre College, and I'm double-majoring in criminology and history. This is my third year in the Triple Crown, and after two Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathons (one without bleeding), I thought it was time for my very first marathon.

To be completely honest, I used to absolutely detest running. Not the way we all do some days, not the way golfers hate golf and throw their clubs into a pond; it hurt, and I saw it as punishment, and as something to be completely avoided at every opportunity. To add to this aversion, I was dating, all though high school, a track and cross country runner, who would respond to queries of, "How was practice?" with things like, "How dare you ask how my practice went!" So this sport hurt AND made you crazy? Count me out, man.

Despite all of that, I was pretty quick. When coerced, I could run a six-minute with what amounted to no physical training at all. So, when a substantially nicer girlfriend asked me to run the Triple Crown and Mini with her during my sophomore year, I said no. This lasted until I noticed my beer belly smiling upwards at me and decided I was wrong. Of course, by then, I was slow. But alas, that's life.

The series lasted longer than our relationship, and I'm reasonably sure that the last time I ever saw that particular girlfriend is Mile 12 of that first miniMarathon. But running has stuck with me ever since, and it's become an integral part of my life. Oddly, I don't have many friends that run; I can't run with a buddy, and I'm still not sure that I can run without an iPod. But I'm obsessed, and three years into this, it shows no signs of going away.