you know you are a runner when…

"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 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." John Bingham

Sorry for the blog absence…I’ve just been enjoying the summer with my guys. This last week we prepared for, went on and are now recovering from a road trip to celebrate my father in laws 70th birthday. I have major vacation hangover…I hate how a trip makes you want to take a break from life when you return.

But in the course of this prep, drive and recover process, I had some thoughts:

You know you are a runner when…

…in the preparation  for a road trip, you spend some time online mapping out a run. You plan out a route for your scheduled long run (9.5 miles) and wonder if it's feasible (not knowing the landscape). You contemplate emailing it to your destination family and then decide not to since it would spoil the surprise your visit is supposed to be to the birthday boy.

…you spend more time checking out local running clubs online to find trails and look up local running stores. 

…you pack your running gear first…you have all your running gear, but forget your pajamas.

…you sneak out under the guise of buying a gift and stopping at the store for groceries. You sneak because really your first stop is the local running store. You have to buy something and chat it up about a good trails in the area. Score, you find a place to run that is way better than the route you planned (which happened to be on a remote country road with no shoulder and up ginormous rolling hills, no thank you). 

…you consider entering the local 5k (the local running store was a sponsor and the owner mentioned it to me when talking about trails).

…you ask you in laws to watch the kids while they are in the midst of preparing for more family to arrive and a party later that day. And then you are gone for over two hours. Oops.  (In my defense it was the hubs that asked and they were more than happy to do it.)

…you explore the new area via your feet.  The trail is perfect. A great park that butts up against the Willamette River. We just kept making turns here and there to explore new parts of the park.

…you pay attention to people running as you drive through town...where are they going? Can you run that route too? (This happened as we were driving through the city center heading from the freeway to my in laws house).

…you spot a trail on the way and follow it to see if it's a good option for the next morning.  (It was a bike trail just down the street from my in laws…a great option, expect that it was not easy to get to on foot and there wasn’t a good place close to park our car. I’m sure there was a good place at some point, but then we heard about our other option and went with that).

…you arrive on a gorgeous day and while recovering from a 5 hour drive all you can think about is how you want to pull on your kicks and explore that trail. I compromised by visiting the running store.

mid-way through our run along the Willamette River, Salem, OR

….you enjoy a great running date with the hubs…but then get kind of bummed that he couldn’t make it the extra 2 miles that you were supposed to do on your training schedule. Well, it might have been more that we had been gone too long already…but the fact that at 7.3 miles that was his longest run by far probably didn’t help my case.

…on the way home you are excited that hubby took a detour that happens to run through a college running town. You try to talk him into exploring it a bit and hit some spots of interest. It’s a no go.

…during boring moments on the drive home, you search for local races just to see when they are and if you can talk your hubby into a return visit for the race…under the guise of another family visit of course.

Yep, I’ve become a runner. Granted, I’m no Steve Prefontaine or Kara Goucher…but a runner I have become.

When did you know you had become a runner?

 

Kristen