Easy Eight

My usual route on Monday for a relaxed eight. About 5 miles in, I see Erik pulling up on his bike. He was scoping out the Cat Terminal for event purposes. I was heading there for peeing purposes. It was nice to chat. While lots of us will be doing the fat ass on Saturday, Erik will be in AZ for a 5ok.

Erik said something about keeping me from my run (he probably had other places to be and/or was thinking about interrupting my run). I told him how I really don't mind interruptions anymore. There was a time when I was really put out if someone even asked directions (Couldn't they see I was RUNNING?!). That was before running pregnant all those years ago. Since, I stop to pet dogs, look at interesting stuff, pick up pennies.... Erik said I'd probably go back to being bothered when I was training seriously. As I said good-bye, he'd given me something to think about.

Am I a serious runner? Running is seriously important to me. I swear it's my sanity. I know I'm dependent. But.... I have a training schedule that I really try to follow. I have goals that are important to me. I didn't like the DNF at the first 50 miler. I hated my performance at last year's Scuffle. I'd like to take an hour off last year's 50 mile time....But, none of it is too serious to me. I just love it. I'm in love with it. I need it. But I like liking running. I like being social. Am I a serious runner? I guess I'm not too serious about too much.

Okay, it's and hour later and I've just come in from walking the dog, giving me a chance to mull this all over. I realized that it's my "charmed life" (Rick's term) that I lead that allows me the luxury of time. Maybe if I only had an hour and 10 minutes to squeeze my run in yesterday, I would have found any distraction annoying. Since I'll be returning to the work force in the near future, I'll find out.