For the past few years, 15 - 20 miles a week but it really depends.
I've gone months without running at all just because I haven't felt like it. I like to run every day but every other day is good enough. When work is intense, it might be one morning and that morning could be a Sunday.
How long have you been a runner?
25 years
How did you start running?
As a child, I was often the first boy or girl "to the fence and back" for warm ups in gym class so I was encouraged to run competitively but didn't enjoy distance so I don't think of that as my start.
My father is a runner. It was mysterious. He always came back from a run so happy. I wanted to see what that was about. When I was around 12, I started to occasionally join him.
Best running experience
Running the last few miles of the New York City marathon with my dad, knowing he spent much of the time I had spent running working at the water station with my teammates. It all seemed to come together.
Unexpected benefit of running
My interest in the park I run in led me to a wonderful job. My spouse and I met in a running club. My life would look very different without running.
Running-induced crazy story
Planning vacations around running. I look up places to run before I travel, sometime going to a race but mostly finding the spots the locals enjoy and understanding the place through the eyes of the runners who live there. A beach in Bali in the morning, watching Hindu morning offerings floating off to sea. Traversing the bridges from Prague to Pittsburgh. Bullets of hail crossing a bridge in the Hamptons. Touring the Tiergarten in Berlin. Jogging as best I could to the top of Banff. Waiting for a family of big horn sheep to pass in the middle of a long-run in Sonoma.
Advice for new runners
Don't force it. A physical activity that you love is enough. It doesn't need to be running but it might be.
