My fiance, Katie, recently remarked to me that she’d like to do the Broad Street Run next year.  After laughing at her, and then, later, thinking about it, I’ve decided that, yes, I’d like to do it.  The Broad Street Run is ten miles long, in a straight line down Philadelphia’s most prominent roadway.  I, meanwhile, am an overweight, out-of-shape, mid-twenties non-runner (who apparently is loving hyphens right now), who has never run anything remotely close to ten miles at once.  The goal is to do the run in 75 minutes on May 3rd, 2009.  Obviously, we’ll adjust the goal for realism as time and training progress.

Assisting me will be my Aunt Mary O’Brien, who runs with vigor and enthusiasm and almost unsettling dedication.  And, by assisting, of course, I mean, “instructing me on how to run, when to run, how often, how hard” and all the rest of it.  If I succeed, it’s all because of her, I suspect.  We’re paying her, meagerly, for it, with fancy words and baked goods.

This blog will, hopefully, document the experience of spending a year training for a single event in a field in which the subject (that’s me) has absolutely no experience in the field at hand (that is, running).

So, if you’re interested in running, the Broad Street Run, learning to run, schadenfreude, or long-winded tales of people overcoming their own personal laziness, stick around.  Hopefully we’ve got something to offer you.