…the last 3 pairs of shoes I’ve bought: (1) flip flops, (2) Vibram Sprints, (3) NB minimalist trail runners. I used to be a girly girl, at least when it came to shoes. I have a closet full of gorgeous heels that I never, ever wear. And while I haven’t been able to part with them yet, when I’m honest with myself I know that I’m not really going to wear most of them ever again, because (a) I have no place to wear them–I don’t really go ‘out’ anywhere that calls for them, I don’t need them for work, etc. and (b) they hurt after awhile and that interferes with my running. So I avoid them, even in situations where I ‘could’ wear them.
…my most recent clothing purchases? ALL RUNNING RELATED (w/ exception of the concert tee last night). I have plenty of clothes, I’m a creature of habit and wear the same things all the time anyway, and I can wear pretty much whatever I want to work. But now, when I go clothes shopping I gravitate towards things I can wear when I run. Interesting.
…the actual act of running has less to do with being a runner than your mentality. I’m slow. Some might call me a ‘jogger’ but we all know that speed has nothing to do with it. But what I’ve realized in the week since my first half marathon is that there are a lot of people who run, but not all of them love it. For them it is a means to an end, they hate it but they do it. Some of them might be pretty good at it, but they don’t do it because they want to. In my opinion, real runners are the people who love it. They are the people who can’t imagine their lives with out it, who genuinely miss it when they have are forced to take time off, and for many of us cross-training is something we do to help us run. I’m definitely one of the latter. I love running. I miss it when I ‘can’t’ do it.
…I’m built for distance not speed. I’m slow as heck, but I can go for hours, and not only can I keep going for hours, but I’d rather go for hours. I get better as I go. I hate shorter runs because I don’t have enough time to hit my stride. I feel like I’m just getting warmed up when it’s time to stop. I will take 7 miles over 2 any day. I would rather run for 2 hours than 20 minutes. I’m getting faster, but I care more about running farther.
…I’m not interested in running a full marathon. I’m in love with the half. As soon as I finished I said to myself ‘when can I do this again?’. I was exhausted, but exhilarated. For me the half training is fun–it’s challenging, but I’m confident in my ability to do it. It’s not daunting to spend 3 hours on a Saturday morning knocking out a long run. But when I think about spending 6 hours on a Saturday running? That’s half of my day, and I’m not okay with that. It’s daunting. It doesn’t interest me. Someday, I might want to take that challenge on (particularly as I improve and get faster and it won’t take me half the day to do a long run) but right now I’m sticking with the half.
Back to cleaning. More later.