June 1 Is National Running Day

National Running Day, held annually on the first Wednesday in June, celebrates the passion shared by 49 million-plus U.S. runners. With the multitude of trails in Eureka and Wildwood, there is no shortage of places to try running at various paces.

The endurance sports category mushroomed over the past year—half-marathons increased by a 24 percent growth rate from 2009 to 2010, while triathlons experienced a 63.7 percent growth rate, according to Competitor.com, a media company that promotes running, cycling and triathlons.

One city engineer knows the benefits of running firsthand. Ryan Thomas, Wildwood director of public works, started running in high school. "I decided to sign up for the track team as a freshman, not really knowing what events I wanted to compete in.  A friend of mine decided to try long distance, so I followed his lead," he said. "I did well as a freshman, and was then encouraged by some of the upperclassmen to run cross country in the fall. My response was, 'what’s cross country?' and the rest is history."

Thomas said once he realized long distance running was something he could do well, he worked hard to improve his times, with the racing side of running what he always enjoyed the most. 

"I ran competitively in high school and college, and ran races almost every weekend during the summer. I became a bit of a race addict—even ran three road races in a single weekend once—a Saturday morning 10K, followed by a Sunday morning 10K and a Downhill Mile Sunday evening," he said.

After college, Thomas said he stepped away from running for several years when he got busy with work and starting a family, not to mention "possible burnout."

Thomas said he started running again for two reasons after he turned 30 years old: for the health benefits and because he missed the adrenaline of racing. "After being away from running for so long, it wasn’t easy to get back into shape," he said.

"For one, I was carrying a lot more weight. It also took a lot of time and motivation to train. For the first seven years or so, I was never able to stay motivated enough to train properly, and never really excelled at it."

At the end of 2010, the started a running club, and Thomas said that’s when things changed for the better. "Having organized group runs has helped keep me committed to training, and I am doing much better as a result. It also brings back fond memories from high school and college when we ran as a group, which adds some fun to the training," he said.

He said he recently started to get more interested in trail races.  This past January, the city of Wildwood held the inaugural . Many other local trail races are held throughout the year.

"Trail running adds the challenge of constantly having to watch every step to avoid tripping over rocks or tree roots, and the scenery is unmatched," said Thomas.

Now his children, Henry and Mia, both 6 years old, seemed to have taken after him when it comes to running. They already participated in various fun runs in the area. "Having really enjoyed running in high school, I hope I can look forward to seeing them follow in my footsteps," he said.

Thomas said the has a Fall Pumpkin Run every year, whereat every elementary school student runs a ½ mile race or longer. The distance increases by grade levels. "I think it is really great that we have so many youth running programs in the St. Louis area—I wish I knew about running at a younger age like my kids do," he said.