Boy do I hate running. And also, exercise. I really do not enjoy getting all hot, sweaty and worn out. If I wanted to do that, I would scrub my tub more often. Even so, this will be my third straight year running the Monument Avenue 10k, and I bet out of the 39,000 participants this year I am likely have the highest actually-running to complaining-about-running ratio.
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| 10k '09. Don't be fooled - I'm miserable. |
Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, so I forced myself to run 4 miles. The only way for me to get through it is to A) Hope that people think I am on mile 19 when I am truly only 5 blocks from my house and B) Try to distract myself. Usually my thought process while running goes a little something like this. “Man, I am going to be able to eat anything I want all week since I slowly jogged 3 miles today. Ooh! I should make a sandwich when I get back. I need to remember to put pickles on it.” Not a very good distraction for an athlete.
Some people are motivated by upbeat music while they are running. I usually resent the music’s pace for taunting my slow crawl. But what if I could distract myself by listening to a good book? Part of me thinks that sounds slightly insane. I often wonder what everyone is listening to as they race past me, but I highly doubt any of them are listening to a British man describe Ken Follett’s tales of drama and intrigue in 85 different voices. Of course, if they are crazy enough to think I am on mile 19, it’s probably not much of a leap to think that I am listening to some very cool underground indie techno beats.
Maybe I will try this books and running scheme. Or better yet, just the book part.
