The Insanity of Runners

I completed the most difficult foot race ever yesterday. Every inch of my body aches and I can’t seem to find the phone number for that good looking Swedish masseuse that I love so dearly. But nonetheless, I completed my goal and that’s what matters.

The part about running that I find to be insane is where the mind goes when the body is working that hard. For example, yesterday, the music in my iPod changed to Shakira’s She Wolf. Instantly I thought to myself, ‘I really do think there is a she-wolf in my closet!’ and my butt started swaying to the tempo – as I ran. I felt like suddenly I was on MTV and the world was watching me dance – but I wasn’t dancing, I was running. It wasn’t until a stump appeared out of nowhere that I stopped dancing.

Another funny thing happened…These two guys in incredibly SHORT-SHORTS* were running ahead of me when all of the sudden they started jumping up and down like to little girls yelping and screaming. I couldn’t help but completely stop what I was doing and stare. Apparently, they ran into a bees nest and one of them was stung 3 times! This was on mile 2 of 9… and he finished the race – are you kidding me?! I would have cried, asked for a refund and my mom. Insane. Completely insane.

My final thought is that when I get real fatigued, I start running with my imaginary friend, PB. I call him that because it’s short for Pretend Boyfriend and he is always super handsome**. At any rate, I think everyone who runs for distance has an imaginary friend. The part where it becomes insane is when you really want to quit and your very own imaginary friend*** starts telling you that you can’t quit and they lovingly sort of taunt you. Equally disturbing is when you vocalize your rationalization with your PB and NO ONE LOOKS AT YOU LIKE YOU ARE WEIRD.

So indeed, running is an insane sport which I love to compete in. And who knows? Maybe someday I will run with my PB on MTV with the bees.



*This is another blog post altogether.

**If my husband would run with me, I wouldn’t have to have a Pretend Imaginary Boyfriend. BUT! I am not sure that I would want my husband to compete with me? He would probably trip me at the finish line to win. I mean really? We all know him pretty well.

***Who YOU created.