John Bingham
I love running. Running makes me happy—happy to feel the sweat running through my body, happy to hear the rhythmic thumping of my New Balance on the road, happy to hear my even breathing as I run kilometer after kilometer.
The other month, however, I realized my major problem as a runner—my inconsistency. I have noticed that I have "seasons" in running. When there is a race, I train seriously, rain or shine. I can even wake up hours before my regular waking time just to run. I can brave dogs in the neighborhood, wiseass tricycle drivers, rude pedestrians...all in the name of a race. BUT, when the event is done, I go back to my bad habits, to running-free days, and to lazy weekends. There were always a lot of reasons for not running: it was raining, I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, it was already dark.... As the days went by after the Condura 21k, I found that it has become easier and easier for me not to run.
This was brought to my attention last week when I saw my pets with my beloved New Balance:
I rescued my shoes and formulated my training plan for the MILO half-marathon. It was hard going at first—hard to wake up early, hard to keep going on. However I kept telling myself that I had no choice. Training was not a matter of me liking it or not, but a matter of necessity. It had to be done whether I liked it or not.
And lo and behold, after just a few runs, I found it easier and easier to put on my running shoes and go out the door! No need for intensive self-affirmations and self-recriminations. Running had become a habit again.Too bad for my kittens though. They have lost a perfectly good pair of shoes to play with.
