I am a runner.
I wince at the sight of that sentence. A fitness professional I know asked me recently about sports I used to do. He followed it with, "And now you're... a runner?" The hesitation, and the slight trace of a smirk that played at the side of his mouth gave away his feelings on "runners."
I am a runner.
Truth is, I was once probably worse than he was about "runners." I still harbor many of the feelings I did previously, and with good reason. I have dealt with self-proclaimed runners, of both the competitive and casual collection, in various settings for years. Here is what I have learned: They are nearly always hurt. Runners, as a group, seem to have the highest incidence rate for chronic, nagging injuries. Maybe this makes intuitive sense - they engage in exercise that is of a chronic, nagging variety (you can see how thrilling I think running is). But something about runners, and the injuries they sustain, is different. No athlete who is serious about his or her sport is going to want to take a day off, even if it means the chance to be better, longer. Nearly all athletes are hard-wired to want to go, push, practice, participate - this is one of the greatest challenges of working with athletes. But runners... they are another animal entirely. I once asked a runner to please, please take the day off from running to let some Achilles inflammation calm down. He proceeded to run 3 miles, only to return and tell me that he DID take the day off. And you know what? He truly believed that running 3 miles was "a day off."
I am a runner?
Okay, I am not *that* kind of runner, and let's be honest, I'm never going to be. For the first 29 years of my life, running was something you did out of necessity, as a part of something else. You ran to first base. You ran the length of a soccer field. You ran to catch the T. Thus, my running was mostly of the sprinting variety. I scoffed at distance runners. Who the heck wants to pound pavement for hours on end, only to end up injured? What's the point? Where is the goal-scoring? Where is the team you are benefiting? I smirked at athletes who used jogging as a training mechanism. I couldn't wait to show them how they were training themselves to be slower.
But, now I am a runner.
Nearly every sport I've ever participated in, from soccer to softball to pick-up dodgeball games, has had an explosive component to it. Thus, I have always trained for explosive power and speed. I am at home under an Olympic bar. I live to single-leg box jump. I find joy in repeated sprints, pushing myself to be faster every time. About a year ago, though, I realized that it had been quite some time since I had actively participated on a sports team. What, exactly, was I training for? I was becoming the gym-rat I abhor - the person who is in the gym, and is "fit," but for what purpose, exactly? To be better at being in the gym? Ugh. I needed a goal.
Enter: cycling. (Gotcha. You thought I was going to say running). When someone very close to me was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, I did the only thing that felt like helping - I bought a bike, organized a team, and did the MS 150 Ride in South Florida. I actually fell in love with cycling. It was the first time I experienced any sort of joy while doing an endurance-type sport. Eventually, I figured that if I could transition into cycling with such enthusiasm, maybe it was time to give running another chance. After all, I'd never run with a purpose (apart from not keeling over while slogging through some pre-determined distance that would be considered a successful "workout" for the day in the years before I knew better).
So, here I am. I have signed up for several races (mostly 5Ks and one 4-miler) over the past few months. It's been... interesting. I don't love it - not yet. But I'm giving it a chance. I'm doing my first 10K in a week and a half. I plan to do a half marathon this year - two weeks before my 30th birthday. That's the plan. I needed to have goals again, and now I do. The thing is, it's not a competition - the only "competition" is with myself, something I've never really found that motivating. Where's the team you don't want to let down? Where are the fans you want to do well for? This purpose of this blog is two-fold: First, put this experience out there. My "team" will be the people who read this and relate, or at least feel like they come away with something new. Second, say it with me now, accountability. I've worked in the fields of rehabilitation and fitness long enough to know that without accountability, every goal is harder to attain. So, I put this out into the interwebs as my way of saying, "I will do what I say I will do." Half-marathon, here I come.
Because I am a runner.
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