The thoughts of a wannabe runner

Right now it's 60 and sunny out in the middle of October in Kent, Ohio. I have three hours until my next class. The Spirit of Pittsburgh half marathon is a little over a week away.

And I'm sitting in my room.

Sometimes I wonder if I can actually call myself a runner. I run a lot. I've spent hundreds of dollars in the past year on entry fees, shoes and clothes. I've ran races around Ohio and a half marathon in Pittsburgh. I can call myself a runner, but do I really have a runner's mentality?

My sister in high school was on the cross country team. She ran six days a week through the summer and fall. I thought she was crazy.

But maybe you have to be.

Running is more than running. Running is a need, not a want. Running is a lifestyle, not a hobby. Running is a lie, not a request.

I can want to run. The weather could be nice, I could feel gung-ho after watching Prefontaine. That stuff would make me want to run. But it's not just wanting. It's needing. I need to run for my day to seem complete. I need to feel that exertion, that tiredness, that pain.

To call running a hobby is a joke. Who can wake up at 5 a.m. for a race on a weekend and call it a hobby? I know a lot of people who call photography or art a hobby. I don't know anyone who has willingly woken up before the crack of dawn to paint though.

Depending on the day, usually about three miles into a run is when I start lying to myself. I tell myself I don't have much farther to go, my legs don't really hurt that bad or it's really not that bad. Sometimes I have to yell at myself (Seriously, watch me run up Summit St. hill sometime). Never though, do I ask myself to run more.

That just seems stupid. Of course I'm going to say no.

But maybe that's the difference between a wannabe and a runner.

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I'm relaunching this blog on wordpress soon. Nothing against blogger, but it just seems like everyone else is on wordpress.

So be on the lookout for SeeJoshRun.wordpress.com (Like the title? I thought of it while running a few weeks ago. And I don't like attack the hill for two reasons: 1) I honestly hate hills, 2) My brother told me the name sounds like a crazy right-wing political blog. He's probably right)