I saw them ahead of me…the 10 hurdles placed evenly along the 100 meters I had to run.

It was 1992, I was a senior.

Running has always been a passion for me. Our HS track had a dip at the far end that overlooked the baseball field. When the sun was setting it made a beautiful backdrop to my long distance runs I had to accomplish.  If you new me, you would know that I was strictly a sprinter. The 100 meter dash, 100 meter hurdles, long jump and the triple jump were my events. Sometimes I had to fill in for the 400 meter relay if our team really needed it to win the meet. I would have butterfly’s at the thought of running that LONG.

Sprinting was easy for me, like breathing as long as it wasn’t further than 100 meters. I went to Regionals and qualified to run at States Final.

It’s now 2009. I haven’t ran in a very long time. Someone challenged me to do a 5k. A 5k I thought. Wow, that makes the 400meters seem like a joke. “I’m not sure” I told them. “Isn’t that over 3 miles at one time?” I was questioning. So here I am…training for a 5k. I’ve started very, very slowly. Someone would probably laugh if they knew my training schedule. But I don’t mind.  Long distance running has never been a passion of mine. I used to cringe when my coach would say it was ‘distance day’. I knew what that meant, miles of running, with me trailing behind. Coach never could quite understand how I could be such a fast sprinter, yet finish dead last for every distance run.

This September I will be running in the CVS classic in Providence. It’s my first event over 400 meters. I technically haven’t overcome the long run yet, but I am determined to finish, however slow that may be.

-Shannon

Tags: bellaniShannon, Shannon Giorgio

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