Welcome to the Renaissance

Hi there. Welcome to my blog, "Running Renaissance." Over the next few posts, I'll explain why I'm blogging, why I chose the name Running Renaissance, why I run and why I think my experiences are worth sharing. I’ll also make this look more like a blog and less like a bad experiment in Web publishing.

At the outset, I'll tell you this much: I've been a wannabe writer since elementary school, a runner since high school, and a professional journalist for more than a decade. I figured it was high time I combined these interests.

Now, since "running blog" can mean different things to different people, it's worth outlining what I intend to accomplish.

First, here are a few things I won't do on Running Renaissance:

• Talk about food. My metabolic blast furnace is the envy of everyone I know. (It helps that I tend to stick to the Mediterranean diet, albeit largely unintentionally and with the occasional entire-pizza bender..) I also have no digestive problems or food allergies. I'll leave nutrition to the experts.
• Post pictures of food. I'd rather eat it.
• Break down my workouts in exquisite detail. I'm neither a coach nor a certified trainer. Plus, I often improvise. (If you want the dirty details, you can find me on dailymile. I log all that stuff there. You can also make fun of the inane names I assign each run.)
• Provide stream-of-consciousness recaps of races. Trust me, this is for the sake of everyone's sanity.
• Tell you what to do. If I could actually persuade people to do things, I'd be a lawyer, not a journalist.
• Discuss how awesome I am. Really, that's in the eye of the beholder.

What I will do, though, is share what I've learned about running through the years. I'll do my best to put things in context; that way, those who neither fast nor veteran runners will nonetheless get some value from what I say. I'll keep the personal stories relevant but stay unafraid to let my writing reflect my personality. I'll open up a little bit -- runners, after all, discuss chafing and bowel movements more than the general population -- without making anyone uncomfortable. I'll remain open to dialogue; for all my experience, I still have a lot to learn.

Above all, I'll never stop running -- and, now that I've started Running Renaissance, if all goes well I'll never stop writing about running either.

Welcome aboard. I look forward to hearing from you.