In the late 1980's, while out with some customers for dinner one night, I met the boyfriend of one of them, a former tennis pro named Ted. It so happened that a number of my customers around the table were runners (and ALL runners talk about is running), so it was nice to hear something a bit different from Ted about his exploits on the pro tennis circuit. The next time I saw Ted was a few months later at another dinner gathering, and of course I asked him how things were going as we made small talk, and he said, "Well, I'm training right now for my birthday mile." When I asked him exactly what he meant, he explained to me that many years prior he and some buddies decided that they would have a goal each year to run a mile on the day of their birthday under a particular time to prove to themselves and each other that they were still in good shape (I believe at the time Ted was in his mid to late 30's and his goal was to break 7:00). They did not train consistently throughout the year, but rather started running a few weeks before the big day so they would be at least in somewhat decent shape for when the time came. On the big day, they would meet at a high school track, warm up, and then the birthday guy would do 1 mile flat out as fast as he could go. To my recollection, there was no prize one way or the other based on their time, just the fact that they gave it their one best shot and let the chips fall where they may.

Ted inspired me to do my own version of the birthday run, so since about 1990 when my birthday arrives on December 1 each year, my goal has been on that day to run 10 miles or more. In those 17 years since I started this, there have been times where I did not run due to an injury or other conflict (one year I had a 30K race the very next day, so that would not have been smart to run 10 miles the day before), but on those years where I did run I have done anywhere from 10 to 15 miles. This year, I decided to change it to 12.1 miles. Yes, this is a quirky distance, but since I was born on 12-01, I decided on that number.

When I recently turned 47, I set out that morning on my goal. To be perfectly honest, my body was pretty tired at the time. I had just completed running 200 miles in the month of November, and the last week of that month I had done a very intense 7.5 mile tempo run (my "tempo" run is typically a 1 mile to warm up, then 30 minutes of basically running as hard as I can, followed by about a 1 mile cool down, then the remaining distance back to the house as hard as I can again). I had also completed 3 other runs that week of 10-15 miles, so in all I had run about 55 miles the week prior to my birthday, which is fairly substantial for me.

As my run that day started, I could tell I was fatigued, and I decided early on that I would not push it to the point of possibly injuring myself if I felt like I just could not do the distance. As usual, my mind began to drift to all sorts of things, and soon the fatigue began to melt away and I felt stronger. I started to think about how blessed I was to not only be able to run, but to even take a single step. I thought about all that running has meant to my life and what a feeling of accomplishment it has given me. I thought of all the people right now who are training for their very first race, no matter the distance, and I said a prayer for them that they achieve their goals and know how awesome they are.

I realized that in my own way on my birthday, running was giving me a gift that could not be held, could not be seen, could not be touched, could not be adequately explained, yet it made me feel so alive and so grateful. It was not the 12.1 miles I completed or the time and pace per mile that were important, it was all the miles before that, all the failures and successes that led to me being able to run that day, and the knowledge that so many wonderful and challenging miles were still ahead of me. What better gift could anyone possibly ask for?