Run run run!

I hope that this recent obsession with running is not just spurred on by my race last weekend and the upcoming race this Sunday in Wilmington...but if it is I'm going to ride it out for as long as possible and try to keep it going.

My thoughst have been consumed with running over the past couple weeks or so.  Before the race I was obsessively reading about race prep on all the runner blogs I read and runner's world.  Since the race it has been "worse" if you want to call it that.  I see it as being better! :)  I've been reading running blogs, runner's world, plus watching running videos about form, hill training, speed work, and on and on.  O yeah and looking up training plans for half marathons.

Because, duhhh I have to do one.  As I'm writing this it is becoming a more concrete decision in my head.  I haven't felt this excited about a goal since I first set out to complete a triathlon.  A half-marathon is a much bigger step and I finally feel like I can start realisticly training for one.

This morning when I woke up the first thought into my head was "is it raining because I want to go for a run."  I made the decision to go into the gym and do 30 minutes of bike hill work instead since it was foggy, muggy and gross this morning, promising myself that if the weather was nice after work I would run at my parent's place.  Alas, it was dark by the time I got home and these roads are borderline too dangerous to run on already, let alone at night.  Let me just point out that 6 months ago I had to drag myself onto the treadmill to run and it was something I dreaded leading up to it and suffered through.  What a turn around!

The funny thing about this week?  Monday I went for a 4 mile run and had to stop halfway because my stomach did the "you better make it to a bathroom immediately" crunch at me.  While this totally sucked, as I was stretching post-sickness all I could think about was how this must make me a "real runner" because it's another one of those "things that all runners deal with" according to my runner friends.



What is wrong with me? Why do thoughts like this even enter my brain? I'm so glad I found this quote from John Bingham today. "If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run"

I need to remember John Bingham's wise words.  I have nothing to prove to anyone, only myself.  I am a runner, darn it. 

I am going to crush my PR on Sunday!