Runner's High

i feel as if there is this running phenomenon going on around me and im not quite sure when all this happened or why im just noticing it for the first time now but it has inspired me to try to start up again. and by again i mean that very loosely. for a while there, i would try to run outdoors once a week and surprisingly i really liked it but for some reason or other i stopped.

but then i went to a charity bartending event last night for a friend who is training for the hawaii marathon in december and as i was talking to some of my friends there, it turned out that all of them were running in the nike half-marathon on sunday. and i didnt know this but there is actually a lottery system to see if you get selected to participate in the actual race or not. a lottery system? you mean there are people who get turned away from willingly wanting to run 13.1 miles? what is going on? they were all trying to tell me to just run it and for a minute there i entertained the thought but then came to my senses and realized ive never run 13 miles in my life not even half that but it did get me thinking, maybe with some training one of these days i could do it?

one of my roomates used to run in marathons all the time. he would even fly all over the place for them in fact and once even did this relay race at the grand canyon (i think) where the team drives along in vans and you run long into the night. it was a bit crazy and i never really understood what would make someone want to do that. then a friend's sister trained for the hawaii marathon a couple years ago and i was floored because she was never the active type from what i remember. then i have another friend who does a couple marathons/triathlons a year and just signed up for the ironman next year and told me about this book called the ultramarathon man so i bought it and read it and understood a little bit more on why someone might want to put themselves through that type of pain and that it was all a mental game.

my first glimpse of this running world was late last year when i signed up for the susan g komen 5k and ended up loving it. then i signed up for the pat tillman 4.2 mile race earlier this year and was hoping to do the susan g komen one again but ended up getting sick and had to pull out the morning of. but all these people around me running have really got me inspired so i think its time to get some new running shoes (at the same store where the ultramarathon man buys his!) and try to pick it up again.