When I think about all the times I’ve said “I love this!” out loud but didn’t quite feel it inside it really does make me wonder. When you have a relationship with something you really do have ups and downs. When you have been doing something for a long time you do eventually realize that it doesn’t have to always be a great feeling to be a great thing. Perhaps some of you have noticed that running could be like that for you.
I remember a long time ago I was on a race team and our practices started between 5am and 6am 5 days a week. Now if you have met me it may have occurred to you that I might not be a “morning person.” If you had this thought you are in fact correct. I am not overly fond of the morning time. I consider it a strange foreign land that I am not entirely sure I am welcome in. While I was engaged in this routine for a couple of years I would regularly yell out loud, “this is fun!” at 5:05 am on a Wednesday morning as me and my teammates were zipping along at a 6:30 minute mile pace that was somehow supposed to be easy. I think it goes without saying that my exuberance was often meant to be a little satirical on those early morning runs. But we did it anyway and sometimes the things my teammates and I would shout that seemed a little untrue in some sense really took the edge off and made us laugh.
Over the years (and decades) I have been involved in lots of different kinds of running and to be consistent it requires a person to run both when they want to and when they don’t want to. Sometimes you say, “we’re just going to do a quick ten,” but inside you are thinking, “how am I even going to make it through ten miles in my condition?” Other times you say, “this is going to be awesome!” and it actually feels that way. But you have to take the good with the bad- and you definitely have to do things sometimes you really don’t feel like doing.
So whether you are telling yourself or your friend, “it’s really warm out this morning,” on a cold winter’s day, or “we’re almost finished,” when everyone knows you are not almost finished- don’t feel so bad about those exclamations. It’s part of the whole process of running- and sometimes it’s part of the process of other parts of your life too. Just because you don’t “feel it” now does not mean that it won’t be worth it later. Have a good run my friends.