Whenever I feel like blowing off a run, I head over to SkinnyRunner for inspiration. Sarah, the blogger behind SkinnyRunner, says her blog is “a not-so-serious take on something she’s seriously passionate about”” running.” This approach makes her blog both entertaining and motivating. I really enjoy reading SkinnyRunner, so I’m psyched to feature Sarah’s guest post on CNC this morning.
Sarah is running the Boston Marathon today, so please click over to her blog and wish her luck!
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I like to run, and I reallylike to run marathons, but I know that not everyone’s crazy enough to think the same way I do.
Some people just don’t “get” marathon running. (And that’s ok too: you don’t have to run to be healthy; you only have to run to be a runner) And if you run, at some point, people will tell you that. Some of my favorite non-runner comments that I hear:
“So how far is this marathon you’re running?”
This is not the time to be a dirtbag and say something like, “Same distance as every other one I run, duh.” Just smile and mumble 26.2 miles. Maybe even leave off the .2 to simplify things.
Hopefully they aren’t listening by this point because if they are, the next line is 100% guaranteed to follow:
“26 miles?! I can’t even drive that far!”
Umm yes, yes, you can… unless there’s some sort of new, super-inefficient car that I don’t know about… And I drive a smartcar so I know all about small, crappy plastic boxes that can’t go far.
“How long did it take you to finish?!”
Ok, so I had a bad day. A reallyslow, bad day. So slow that time actually went backwards and I had to meet up with Doc Brown and Marty McFly just to get back here.
source: scifipulse.net
But a bad race/run/workout still trumps no workout at all.
“That doesn’t even sound fun!”
Sometimes it’s not. Running isn’t always fun and neither is life, but you don’t give up on that when things gets tough.
Let’s have a moment of silence for the upcoming clique: the bad runs make you appreciate all the more the great ones. Gutting it out through the tough races makes you a stronger runner and person.
Running a marathon in the rain isn’t easy and it certainly isn’t fun, but if you can run 26 in crappy weather, you can murder a marathon in ideal conditions.
“I could never do that; I can’t run.”
This is my least favorite because I want to say, Yes, you can do it! If I can, you can. Anyone can finish a marathon. It might not be in 3 hours, 4 hours or even 6 hours, but anyone can finish. I mean, if Ron from The Biggest Loser can walk a marathon, he just killed your excuse.
source: biggest-loser.org
Do you ever get random comments from non-runners about your running?