Posted by Chris LaSonde on August 05, 2008 at 08:28:17:
Hi. My name is Chris and I am addicted to endorphins.
In another life I was a competitive disc golf player but split with the sport over the use of illegal substances during competition. You can assume rightly I fell in with the angels (and no we weren't talking blood doping).
Which segues nicely into my mid-life crisis and the resumption of a lifelong love affair with running. Long ago and far away I ran all the time up to and including marathons (Boston x 3, Marine Corps x 2 & NYC). But then the evil nicotine gobbled up 30 years lung capacity and I fell willingly into sedentary "sports."
With the big 50 looming, I quit smoking last May and began walking with the goal of taking a solo hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on or about my birthday in July of this year. I will be making that hike in September, but during the course of getting back in shape I went just a tad bit overboard. One day I was Googling "trails" and serendipitously I discovered the "new" sport of trail running. Goal readjustment now includes training for my first ultra which will be the '09 Mississippi 50 (I'll be doing the 50K).
Along the way I am going to do plenty of training races (the Googling of which brought me to the PCP doorstep). To make a long story short, I jump back into the fray tonight as a newly-minted Grandmaster with the Crime Prevention 5K. If you see me wandering around downtown looking shot full of adrenaline come over and share a soothing mantra with me ... I'll be the goofball-looking guy in the CW-X super-hero tights.
I will also be joining the Pacers tonight and thought I would mention for what it may be worth that I have been known to be susceptible to the volunteering bug in the past.
I do have one question: I see a lot of posts with mild and civil trash talking that seems to revolve around "teams." I looked back through a bunch of pages of forum posts but never really saw an explanation of what teams are and whether this is just friendly and unofficial rivalry or whether there is a more formal setup. Is there a formal structure? How might one get involved?