Introduction - Why I Run

Who am I? I am Sho.  Male, 24 years old, 6 feet, 174 pounds, in shape, and I live in Knoxville TN.

I am a runner

I started running when I was in 7th grade, and since then, I've kept it up.  Cross Country and Track and Field were my two favorite things to do in HS (band coming in 2nd).  My first distance race was my senior year in HS, running a half marathon right after our invitational in Guam.  I got 10th place overall and 1st in my age division with a time of 1:37:23 with a 7:26 pace.  When I graduated and went to college, I ran Cross Country also, but I also signed up for my first marathon, the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, which I finished in 12th place overall, 1st in my age group, with the time of 3:11:42, with an average of a 7:19 mile.  I was really happy to get that time for my first marathon, and I was hooked on running long distances and up until now, I've run 4 marathons, the best time being 3:56:05 (7th place finish, 1st in my age group).

October 15th, 2011, I ran The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler, finishing the race with the time of 11:49:15, 58th place overall.  Because I signed up for the race a month prior, I didn't have enough time to train properly, but I wanted to challenge myself and see whether or not I would be able to do it.

Making goals and striving to finish them is something that I believe is really important, not only in running, but in everyday life.  I enjoy making goals and working hard to achieve them.  My running goal this time is different.  It's not just one race that I want to train for.  It's not a certain fitness level I want to achieve.  My goal is to inspire people to run their hardest towards their goals, to never give up when times are tough, but to push through the pain and hardships and persevere.  My goal is to run, not just for myself, but for everybody around me.

I have been on and off training for the Nashville's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, and last week, I unfortunately caught strep throat and had to get off exercising for a long time.  Today, as I was already better, I decided that I would go for a run.  As it was my first day of my 3 week long spring break, I woke up and ran 6.06 miles in 1:03:52, 10:33 min/mile.  In the afternoon, I ran 5.59 miles in 53:01, 9:32 min/mile.  Today marks the starting point for me, the first day that I start running for everybody around me.