Tuesday, July 5, 2011

"non-runners don't understand..."

You're running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You're delirious. But you keep running because there's no way out of this hell you're in, because there's no way you're not crossing the finish line. It's a misery that non-runners don't understand.


~ Martine Costello

I love this quote.  I would tattoo this on me if I could, except that it would be really long, and I don't think the non-runner in my life would understand.  at all.

Non-runner doesn't understand most of what I do.  He doesn't get my desire to get up before the sun to taste the morning air before it's flavored with auto exhaust and heat.  He doesn't even hear me when I talk about how much I love the squish of the shoes under my feet as I run over the wet pavement, dodging puddles and leaves left by the overnight Thunderstorm.  He especially doesn't get how much I love to get out and push my limits for the sake of pushing them.  

He doesn't understand how the run, whether it's alone or "in SNOW", can reset my internal "SCALE".  

You know, that internal measure one uses to determine that balance of life... the balance between the non-runner, the running and everything else that falls into the day?  Without my run, I don't know how to just be....

That's why I ran today.  The schedule said I should, but I am no slave to the schedule.  I could have skipped it.  A missed run in July isn't the end of the world.  

I ran though, because I needed to run.  

~savor the run~


2 comments: