Who is Teach and Why "Run for Pride"?

I'm Teach, aka, Jill. When I first started blogging, I used the pseudonym because I didn't want my students finding my personal blog and I have never changed it. I will be keeping this blog public, but will continue to share about my personal life on my private blog.

I have been athletic my whole life and participated in most sports as a child, but chose to focus on volleyball throughout high school and even into college. My dad has always been a runner so I have been around the running scene since as early as I can remember. He was nice enough to coach both the cross country and track teams during my junior high years and that is where the title comes from.

My passion was truly volleyball, but I participated in running to stay in shape and to have something in common with my dad. During one of my cross country meets, I was not running well (which may have been because I always chose volleyball practice over cross country practice) and seemed to be cramping and probably was one of the last runners on the course. My dad always cheered for me and during this particular race, he motivated by yelling out, "Run for Pride," to which I responded, "SHUT UP!" Looking back I can not believe I was so rude to my own father who was clearly supporting me, but now as a 7th grade teacher I justify this with the fact that most teenagers seem to be this way.

For whatever reason, the concept of running for pride has always stuck. No matter how bad I might be feeling while I run (because as you will find, running is not my forte), I can always do it for my own personal pride. I am not quite sure where this quest to a marathon will take me, but I know that no matter what, I will be making myself proud.