Confessions of a Non-Runaholic

I have to admit, I never really thought “it” would happen.

I’ve listened patiently and pretended to understand what Liv is talking about when she gushes about running. And I’ve pretended to share her excitement as we register for races and meet for our “long” runs. But I haven’t been 100% honest with her (or to this blog).

Since the very beginning, Liv has been the driving force in this pre-training training business. You see, she has a little something called self-discipline. And unfortunately, it’s sort of a foreign concept to me. I have wanted to run a marathon my entire life, but without that key component of self-discipline, well… let’s just say the starting line was never really in sight.

And even now that I’ve committed to the 2011 MCM, I’ve felt constantly discouraged. Liv gets up absurdly early every morning to go to the gym, (almost) always sticks to the training schedule and always manages to run about 2 feet in front of me whenever we run together. She writes posts about “You might be a runner if” and talks about spending her bonus money on running gear, while I’ve been focused on things like Groundhog Day, musical playlists and my unyielding hatred for treadmills. Basically, I’ve been in survival mode. I’ve been attempting to trick Liv into thinking that I’m equally excited about this whole running business to buy myself time until I can casually pull an Irish goodbye and hope she never notices. Sorry Liv.

But here's the good news: thanks to my extremely demanding (and sometimes obnoxious) overachiever of a running partner, I haven’t yet found the opportunity to quit. And following my run on Sunday, I no longer want to.

No matter how much (or little) I’ve run in the past, it has always felt like a chore. It has been something I have to endure for 30 minutes until I’m done. I’ve dreaded every. single. step. I’ve listened to and read about those folks that can’t wait to go for a run and feel like a million bucks afterwards, but frankly, I’ve always felt those "runaholics" were slightly off-their-rockers.

But all of that changed this weekend.

There was nothing particularly unusual about the run, though the warmer weather certainly helped. And I didn’t keep an impressive pace or run a long distance (though for me, it might as well have been a marathon). And come to think of it, I actually felt pretty terrible afterwards because I forgot to stretch and I didn’t drink nearly enough water. But even so, I loved it.

And then I was sad that the next day was a “rest day” because I couldn’t wait to run again. And when I finally did go for another run yesterday morning, it didn’t go so well. I had to go to the bathroom so badly the whole time that I actually considered popping a squat in front of the Veep’s mansion, but ultimately decided that the Secret Service would probably catch me in the act. And yet, I’m still just as excited to run tomorrow.

So… I guess this is “it.” I guess this is what a “runner’s high” is all about. I wouldn’t know from experience – after all, I’m new to this runaholics club (and I'm not really a full card-carrying member just yet) – but I’m rather stoked to finally understand what it’s all about. No doubt that I’ll still have TONS of bang-ups and hang-ups. And there will be plenty of days ahead when I’ll be tempted to take a cheap shot at Liv to get out of running, but I feel like I can finally see it all coming together now. And that starting line is ever-so-slightly coming into view.