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posted: 2025-07-20

Running

My eight generations of running shoes, as of July 20th, 2025


My Relationship with Running

There's a joke about graduate students. Supposedly they all get into one of these three exercise hobbies, running, cycling, or rock climbing. Do not ask me where this joke originates, I could not tell you. Amusingly, I do find this joke to have some truth to it; I happen to enjoy running, a lot.

I run for fun. Sometimes I go on fun runs, though not as often as I would like. Alas, I miss my fun runs. I don't run competitively, though I haverun my fair share of races, with times I am proud of. Perhaps, if I were a more regular race runner, I'd use a section of this page to update folks on my results. Still, I like to run for my own goals. I like to have a body that moves when I ask it to, I like to have a body that can sustain movement for extended periods of time. I like to have a body that is more lean and muscular. I like to have a body that processes the fuel I put into it. And so on and so forth. What I'm trying to say here is that I run primarily for my own enjoyment, peace of mind and physical well-being.

I started running consistently in January of 2018, as a sophomore in college. I found it was a fun way to connect with my partner at the time, and to clear my brain after a stressful day. When that partner and I broke up later that Summer, I still continued running, I had been hooked for real. I continued running through college, though it wasn't until I had to return home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that I truly fell in love with the activity. March 2020 through February 2021, I managed to run a half marathon every month, on my own. I have since made it an effort to run as regularly as I can and with a large set of variety in times of times, distances and locations. I just like to explore when I'm out on my runs!

As of Summer 2025, I have made it an effort to run 20 miles a week. If I run more, that's great! If I miss that mark, I'm usually still above 15 miles. If I'm training for a race for whatever rason, it's easy to scale that figure up appropriately. I have been told that 20 miles a week is "the sweet spot", and I think it's a reasonable value for me for where I am in life and what my general life goals are. I have maintained this habit for the better part of four years, during graduate school. It's a good hobby to have. It gets me out of the house and keeps me in shape!

Some Statistics

Other Notes

Be on the lookout for a "Favorites" page for some of my "Favorite Running Routes"! This will likely cover some of my runs I've done abroad, races I've run, and other bits and pieces.