My Running History, part 1.

The first sport I remember wanting to participate in was running.  I remember riding past the local middle school and seeing the track and wishing my dad would stop the car so I could run on the track (though I don't remember ever actually asking him to stop).  This wasn't one of your super-nice all-weather tracks (like the one we recently got installed here in Millersport); this was an old cinder track.  But I wanted to run on it.

Every time we went to Scotty's Sandwich Junction (a Kokomo local chain burger restaurant that served great tenderloin sandwiches and always had good coupons) or Taco Grande ($.39 tacos and all-you-can-drink pop refills before anyone was doing that), we'd drive past Maple Crest Middle school, and I would wish to run on the track.

I eventually did get to run on that track - in sixth and seventh grade, I ran at Maple Crest.  I don't know how many miles I put in on that track - my track practice usually consisted of me hitting the track and running laps until practice was done.  In 7th grade, I consistently ran miles in the mid 5:25s on that track (I found out the day of the city meet that all season I was less than a second off the city record - in the city meet, I broke the record by running 5:14, but that was on the all-weather track at the high school).  These many years later, I just wish I could run that fast!