Running Update (runner's high)

A common misconception about runners is that they all actually like to run.  That is something I have always believed. Since I have started this blog I have had at least 50 people tell me the same thing: "I just don't like to run."
 
I was really looking forward to enjoying my new hobby.  After a few weeks I still wasn't having fun on the treadmill.  I asked my running mentor and marathoner Shanna Jones when she started to like running. She responded with "Oh, I don't like running." Wait, so all these years... all those people... and no one really likes running? "But I like how it makes me feel," she responded.  Now this I can relate to.  Running is really strenuous and usually not very much fun (also, what am I supposed to be thinking about on the treadmill for an hour at a time?) but the result is very rewarding.  I have lost weight and I have more energy.  I have a hobby and goal that makes me proud. 

I telling very best friends Brittany (Pepper) about my new hobby and I heard the typical response from her, but with a twist: "I don't like to run. Also, I see runners all around St. Louis and I just want to swerve my car and hit the smug bastards." She has a point.  Runners can look quite smug.  However I can see where one might interpret the look as "Oh God. I can't BEAR to think about how much more awesome I am than you; if I did my head would explode and that would really hurt." when the runner is actually thinking, "Oh God, I can't BEAR to run another yard; If I do I will pass out and bust my head on this concrete and that would really hurt!" Note to self: practice not looking so smug while running.

The one thing that I have heard runners and non-runners talk about is the "runner's high." This sounds fantastic! However I must admit, to me the task still feels more like running for four miles and less like riding a unicorn to candy mountain. 

My advice to those thinking about running: we aren't having a blast.  You aren't doing it wrong if you aren't getting the high.  I've never felt the high and I don't love to run.  However, I do love to eat and I'm getting to do plenty of that now that I'm running 4 times a week.  Don't get discouraged if you don't like it.  Just hang in there and maybe one day you (and I) will feel that famous runner's high.  And in the meantime you may find that you can't stop thinking about it, and talking about it, and blogging about it...