Monday, February 8

Real Runners

I still, and probably always will, have difficulty calling myself a runner. I know I put in the work to be a runner and have run many miles in my lifetime, but to do this day anytime I pass someone on the trail that looks like a runner to me, I immediately feel like I am a poser and this real runner will look at me and know it.

I can't see what I look like when I run because I obviously don't run in front of a mirror. Sometimes I will run past a storefront and crane my neck to try to get a look at myself but I don't want to look like a vain egomaniac or risk running into something because I was looking at myself. I am not even sure I really want to know what I look like when I run. Although there is a chance that it would put my fears of not looking like a runner to rest, there is a much bigger chance that my fears will be verified - I look like a dork. Ignorance is bliss and I am ok with that.

The thing about running is anyone can do it so no one teaches you how to run. People act as if you are born with an inane sense of how to run properly but if you have ever seen someone running with an awkward or unusual gait you know that can't possibly be true. Baring any physical disability anyone can get from Point A to Point B in some sort of running state, but looking like a graceful gazel, not so easy. What I do know about me is that some days I do feel a little gazel like - or maybe a slightly less graceful creature like a mule. But other days I feel like I am clumbsily laboring along like Frakenstein. Every step feels awkward and I can't get any sort of flow going as I jerk along. This is running though, you don't always know what your legs and your body are going to do or how they are going to feel so you just have to go with it, hence the mental strength running teaches you. It doesn't matter how many miles you have run in your lifetime either, every runner has those runs. But there is something you can do that can help.

For the past few outside runs Mike and I have gone on we have changed it up a bit and left the ipods at home. We don't talk incessently so there is a great deal of quiet where we are inthralled in our own thoughts and there has been two effects from running without music blasting in your ears. First, I feel like I can more easily find my rythm. When you have music on it can be sometimes helpful and sometimes difficult depending on the beat of the song. My music is never consistent in tempo so there is a constant shift going on while I try to keep a consistent pace. Without music my body relaxes into a pace and rythm that feels more natural because it isn't influenced by anything. My body runs the way it wants to.

The second effect has been that I have felt more like a real runner. For me real or pure runners are the runners who don't need to be distracted by music but enjoy running so much all they need is a pair of shoes and their thoughts to hit the road or trail. In the past I have not listened to music while running for safety reasons (like it was dark outside) or because my ipod was broken or my mom was being my sherpa and I didn't want to be rude and ignore her the whole way. I had never gone sans Ipod by choice though. It feels good to be a minimalist, pure runner and get out there music free. I could hear the birds singing, the rhytmic shuffling of our feet, Mike farting, me farting, it was a beautiful thing.

I have no plans on putting the ipod away entirely, but perhaps doing it more frequently will help me to accept the fact that yeah, I actually just might be a real runner. Whatever that means.

5 comments:

  1. I say just use the iPod for avoiding people at the gym. :-P

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  2. Yeah, that is something I will definitely always do. They are getting worse and worse there too. A select handful just always have something to say to Mike and I and it is always rude towards Mike and it is starting to piss me off.

    It started with the comments about him keeping up with me. Crap like, "Good luck on keeping up with that one!" - which is a compliment towards me but at the same time implies that he perhaps isn;t capable of it. Mike always just smiled and said something like "I know, it is rough" when he has been doing the same exact workout as I do for months now.

    Then it was "hey Kasey you have a shadow following you around" then "hey look it is team Kasey!" And then the latest and greatest was when someone said to Mike that he was slimming down and pretty soon you he was going to be 100 pounds and someone would have to carry him out of the gym, then they said that actually I could could carry him out of here.

    And the whole time Mike doesn't get mad, just shrugs it off (I know it bothers him a little). I am the one who gets mad though. I don't think they mean anything by it but it gets old.

    Oh and then one time we came in and both of us were wearing a blue shirt and we endured an entire workout of being teased for wearing matching uniforms. "Hey Team Kasey has a uniform now!".

    Mike is in amazing shape and he works hard too and just because he works out with me doesnt mean he should be slighted for it. If we didn't work out together people would probably be impressed with how hard he works and the fact that he is in great shape but my presence takes away from that and it bothers me.

    Boy I needed to rant:)

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  3. It sounds like you are surrounded by a bunch of insecure morons. Like they are jealous of Mike that he gets to be around you all the time, and intimidated by you for being so much more fit that they are. (I'm just guessing these are men that make the comments) Good for him for shrugging it off. Guess what boys, sometimes girls are better at things you think you should be better at. Go girl.

    And to the post, it's funny because my friend Tommy who runs refuses to use music because he thinks it's cheating. He wants to use the time to focus on his workout and think about things that you really only have time to think about on a long run. Not that he would judge anyone for using it to help them get into the zone or whatever, he is just hardcore when it comes to himself.

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  4. Tommy would be the guy that I would see running and think oh he is a real runner. Someday I will be more of a zen runner like that!

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  5. But he is also the type of guy who goes out drinking beers the night before his second marathon!! And also the type of runner who would never judge another person struggling with running or with a funny gait or weird outfit or wearing an ipod or not. I think that's one of the inspiring thing about going to races, is that everyone encourages everyone else, despite age or sex or fit level.

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