Published a Piece at RunGuides: Almost Five Decades of Running

I've always been a freelancer, working mostly in comics & illustration, as well as the printed T-Shirt trade. More recently, I've turned to writing, dashing off articles on subjects from personal finance and small business to constructing the perfect Halloween costume.

For several years I've been writing for the excellent RunGuides site, which helps runners locate races and prepare for them. The site is a perfect online companion for us runners, guiding us through many aspects of the running experience with race calendars, run club info, and articles on running. There are even coupon codes to get you discounts on races.

I was recently invited to pen an article at RunGuides that pulls on my looooooooong experience as a runner (beginning in 1972 as a high school freshman). I came up with a piece entitled What I've Learned In Almost 50 Years of Running. Here's an excerpt.

"Trust yourself. Get into a good rhythm. Relax and run hard. Those endorphins will flow, and you'll know just what to do."

Go ahead a click through the above link to check out the article. Also, be sure to take the time to have a look around the RunGuides site... a good way to start is to navigate to the run calendar for the big city nearest you.

Happy Running!

- Steve Lafler

Here I am finishing 3rd for Lincoln Sudbury High in a cross country meet in September 1974. It was a triple meet against Wayland and Acton Boxboro, perhaps my best XC run in high school. The guys who beat me that day were tough.

One Rick Smith of Acton, a brilliant power runner who won the indoor state mile championship that year, finished ahead of me in second. The race was won by a skinny kid named Alberto Salazar of Wayland high school.

Our Dual Couny League was a real powerhouse. This day, I beat out a stack of my close rivals, a good five runners who were accomplished at both the league and state level in cross country and indoor and outdoor track over distances from the half mile to the two-mile.
On my part, I came 2nd in the Dual County championships over the mile twice, and 2nd in the 1000-yard indoor championships. As a senior, I was 5th in the state in the 1,000-yard run.