Thursday, March 15, 2007

I love it

Al Durham posted this on his blog. He is also training for Bayshore. It's so funny! I'm bolding the ones that I really, really relate to.

You Know You're A Marathoner When. . .


~ Your "easy" runs top the weekly mileage of 95% of the general population.
~ You eat like a 400 lb. man, and look like you're starving.
(I eat fairly healthy, but I eat constantly.)
~
You miss a run and you're irritable and pissy all day and evening, as well as the next day.
~ People avoid you when you're tapering.
~ Your friends gag when they catch a glimpse of your toes.
~
You roll your eyes when people talk about low carb diets.
~ "18 weeks" becomes your most important unit of time.
~ You start debating about Higdon.
(No relation :-). )
~
You'd rather run a marathon than go on a "real" holiday. (I like to turn marathons into actual vacations; for Bayshore we're going up Thursday and then spending a few extra days in town to relax afterwards.)
~
You no longer think people who run marathons are crazy.
~
After finishing a really tough 26.2-mile run, your first thought is: "Next race, I'm going to...."
~ You have a pile of shoes in your closet because you feel like you have to have new running shoes every 400 miles.
~ Any run less than 16 miles feels like an easy workout.
(Less than 8-10 for me.)
~
You spend too much time on the Internet reading about other peoples' workouts. (I'm addicted.)
~ You say you're going out for a short run and come back two hours later.
(Maybe just one hour later.)
~
You think high 40s/low 50s and overcast sounds like perfect weather.
~ You think it's completely normal to put band-aids on your nipples.
~
When someone mentions that they live in another city, you immediately think, "Oh, I hear that's a good running city" or "Good God! I couldn't live there! Their marathon is cruddy and there's nowhere to run!"
~
You start to lobby elected officials to revoke "right turn on red" laws. You don't understand why everyone in your office thinks that's crazy. (Ugh, amen. If people had consideration this wouldn't be a problem.)
~
You get up earlier on weekends than you do during the work week. (Just on race days, otherwise, hell no.)
~ You shower about 12 times a week.
(Not quite that many.)
~ You try to negative split mowing your lawn.
~
You wonder if you can get your business suits made out of Coolmax.
~
Every time you see a runner when you're driving you feel like you too should be running, even if you ran 15 miles earlier in the day.
~ Your favorite shorts, singlet, socks and shoes cost three times as much as the clothes you got married in.
(I love clearance racks!)
~ You tell your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend that you want a marathon entry as a birthday present.
(I would be too afraid that they would get my seed time or my shirt size wrong :-D. )
~ You think 40 miles is an easy week.
(I'm getting to that point. Would like to increase base mileage to around there.)
~
When you're driving somewhere and you see a distance to next town sign and automatically calculate how long it would take to run there.
~
You plan your vacations around your training schedule. A trip to Colorado is an opportunity to get some great hill work in. You could never imagine going on a cruise or a small Caribbean island. Trying to map out a 20 miler would be too hard.
~ Actually thought about PowerGel as a dessert topping.
(Gross!)
~ When someone asks you how far you are planning to run, you say "I'm ONLY doing 10 today".
(My only number is probably 7-8.)
~ When your non-running friends stop calling you to hang out the night before you do your long runs.
(Not quite, but I decline going out if I have a race or quality workout the next morning.)
~ You start planning your training for the next marathon before you even finish the one you're training for now. (I'm already looking ahead as far as November...)
~ You wear more electronics on a run than are in the dash of your car.
(I do have a GPS now, but I still wouldn't consider myself a super high-tech runner; no HRM and usually no music.)
~ You are excited about an upcoming birthday because it will bump you up to a new age group and make it easier to get into Boston.
(I've got a while before my age will make any difference to my BQ time. I hope to qualify well before that!)
~ You tell non-runners you ran 5 miles when you really ran 15. Just so you won't have to sit through the "Wow, that's far!" conversation.
(Heck no, I'll brag! A lot of my friends are runners and/or marathoners, and my co-workers are getting pretty educated about marathoning.)
~ You can't cuddle with your significant other at night because you have ice on your knees, or your shins, or ....
(Or at least it's been a while!)
~ You gasp when you see someone running in everyday gym socks.
(Meh! But I certainly don't run in them.)
~ Your best watch is a Timex.
~ Your car smells a little sweaty from your running shoes in the back seat.
~
Your tan line is just above your ankles. (My tan lines are EVERYWHERE.)
~
(For females) Your calendar plots out for the next several months what training races will likely fall just before or during that "special time of the month." It's also a factor when considering what marathon to run!

And I have to add one:
~ You willingly sit in a bathtub full of ice water for 20 minutes.

You just gotta love it.

3 comments:

Al Durham said...

That was hilarious reading your comments on the list. Once again you proved that women have a higher pain tolerance than men. 20 minutes in an ice bath! I am usually jumping out after 10 minutes. Wimpy I guess.

Nitmos said...

Hey, I see you are also running Bayshore. Good luck with the training! It should be a nice run right up along the peninsula.

Mike said...

good luck with the training see you at the bayshore