Top Ten April 21, 2008

I know that probably every runner with a blog has posted something like this, but I thought it necessary to take a few moments and declare my love for running, in list form.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Running:

1. It gives me more self-confidence than anything else can, including my boyfriend at times, getting an A on that 10-page paper, or dressing up and going out with friends.

2. I can use fun words like fartlek, not feel perverted, and know at the same time that there are many others that understand me.  It’s like a secret language…

3. Every step I take connects me a little bit more with nature, because along with every step I breathe in more of the smell of pine, and sense more of the movement around me.  (Or, at times, with every step I breathe in more of the smell of KFC grease and car fumes and sense more of the uncaring people around me…)

4. While it is so hard to get myself out there some days, I never ever regret going when I walk back in my room.

5. It still makes me feel sexy, even though I’m sweating and malodorous and uncomfortably mucilaginous (vocab word of the day).

6. The tan.  That’s all I have to say about that.

7. Knowing that there will be other sweating, shirtless men out there, and that I get to wave at them as we pass by each other; because even though we’ve never met, we still have some sort of connection.

8. The way I hope those sweating, shirtless men also look at me.

9. The feeling of accomplishment I get afterwards as I collapse, barely strong enough to even sit down.  It’s the strange way the two antipodes work together.  How the pride builds me up, and makes me feel impregnable, but at the same time how the exhaustion and fatigue make me crumble to the ground.

10. Knowing that I can do something that few others can, and love every moment of it.