I celebrated my 38th birthday on November 11. It seems like just yesterday I was 28 and just starting to get into long distance running.

I ran my first marathon in 2006, and even though running still involves simply putting one foot in front of the other, quite a few things have changed. If you’ve been running for 10+ years, enjoy this bit of nostalgia. If you haven’t, then maybe you’ll learn a bit of history!

1. Stopwatches with lap buttons
If I remember correctly, the Garmin GPS watches were just starting to come out in 2005, and it took them a few years to go mainstream. Back in 2006, I was using my trusty Timex stop watch in races and for long runs. I did all of my long runs on the W&OD trail, which has mile markers, so I would press the lap button at each milepost. The same was true for races. I had no idea what pace I was running until I approached the mile marker and hit the lap button on my watch.

2. Mainly white running shoes
If you walked into a running store 10 years ago, all the shoes would be white with small pops of color accents. The more popular models offered a choice of up to 4 color accents, but the shoes looked pretty much the same: all white. Nowadays, the walls of running shoe stores are covered in bright colors and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything that’s mainly white. It used to be that runners were cautioned not to buy shoes based on color, but now runners actually have a good range of colors for any given shoe.

3. iPods–not iPhones
10 years ago, many people were running with iPods, myself included. I used the iPod Mini for awhile, but then the shuffle came out and I loved how compact it was. Nowadays, I see some people still using Shuffles (which is what I use on the treadmill) but the majority of runners who run with music seem to be using their phones to do so. Oh, and also using the phones to track their route, take pictures, and a number of other things that could not be done with a simple iPod.

4. The Boston Marathon didn’t fill up
You could BQ in February and then run Boston just two months later! What’s more, you could BQ in the fall of 2005, and that time would be good for Boston 2006 AND Boston 2007. There were no “cut-off” times because there didn’t need to be. 10 years ago, running marathons was not nearly as popular as it is today. It was a lot easier to get into Boston back then because there simply wasn’t as much competition as there is today. Part of me wishes it would go back to being the way it used to, but another part of me enjoys the fact that it’s more challenging now.

5. Social Media wasn’t mainstream
Some people were on MySpace, but not nearly as many people were on MySpace talking about running as there are today on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Strava, and numerous forums. So, chances are, if you went for a training run, the only person who knew about it was you and maybe the people you lived with. There wasn’t as much “inspiration” going around so runners had to be more intrinsically motivated to get out there and run.

Who knows what running will look like 10 years from now? Overall, I like the technological advances we’ve made and the fact that more people are running marathons. But it is nice to reflect on “back in the day” when things were much simpler.

Reposted with permission from Racing Stripes