Charlie and I were on our final walk of the night on Friday when we bumped into a neighbor with her puppy. We see each other out and about often, sometimes when Charlie and I are heading out for or coming in from a run, so, since I was still in my running clothes from the 5k race we'd just run, I should have expected the question:
Are you a runner?
Now, I talk a big game on this blog about being a runner. In the past four months alone, I've written this post, this post, and this post - not to mention the vlog I recorded back in January - and I'm all over Twitter and Instagram with my splits and my sneakers. But actually being asked that question in person and having to answer it honestly is a totally different experience. So I kind of laughed awkwardly and did a little shuffle and reached down to pull Charlie's ear and then...
I said yes.
After all, I had just gotten home from running in a 5k race, the first of two in a series I'll be doing this month, and there was a 6 mile training run pencilled in on my calendar for Sunday morning. (Charlie and I ended up doing 6.4 miles, which is a 10k, and then alternating between euphoria and death for the rest of the day.) Plus, I've retired one pair of running shoes (rest in peace, my faithful Saucony Stabil 6s) and am starting to think about getting another to rotate in with my current Brooks pair. If all that doesn't make me a runner, what does?
Sometimes I still feel like I'm faking it. When I'm not actually running or recovering from a run, I sort of wonder if I am, in fact, a runner. After all, my times are nothing to write home about. I still haven't ever run more than 7 miles in one go. And I don't look like a runner, whatever that means.
But I am a runner. I've got the next five weeks of runs scheduled so that I'll be as ready as possible for my half marathon on September 14. I can push through a crappy mental place into an energizing rhythm. I'm bringing my workout clothes to England and am really looking forward to clearing my head with an easy run on the morning of my wedding.
So yeah, I'm a runner. I just wish someone had told me a decade ago that I could be!
