Not the Victory, but the Action...Part 3

If you really want to read this entire diatribe, here ya go:
Part 1, Part 2,
Don't worry...after this reflective saga, we'll go back to our regularly scheduled programming.

"Don't worry about what others think. It's your blog. Write what you want to write about."
- Non-Runner Nancy (paraphrased)

One of the biggest mistakes I did after my first race was tell myself that I needed some time off. I told myself one week.

One week, became two, became 3......

I got back to running right before Thanksgiving. I had gotten out there sporadically between late September and October, but the excuses were running fast and furious:

"It's getting cold outside."
"I've got too much stuff to do."
"10 mph winds? That's just too damn windy."

It wasn't until May of 2007 that I got back into it. One of my students and I were talking about an upcoming race. She told me that 5 miles wasn't that tough. I told her that 5 miles was longer than she thought it was and that the course was pretty hilly. Long story short, winner had to buy donuts for the class. That small wager got me back out on the road.

After soundly beating her AND letting other students know about it (I'm an inspirational teacher, aren't I?), I had the itch to get back out on the roads. I had no race in mind, I just knew I had to get back out there.

When I was going on a weekend run, I was listening to an episode of Phedippidations where Steve Runner was professing the value of blogging. I was familiar with the whole concept of blogging, I just wasn't sure why anyone would give 2 cents about how my runs went. Nevertheless, I do whatever the media tells me, so I signed up on Blogger. New Shoes, New Blog was the first entry. Quite honestly, I never really got much out of it.

It wasn't until I went to the Running Blog Directory where I started perusing other blogs. The first one I read had (and still has) solid writing and it made me laugh. I looked at the blogroll on that blog, went to those sites, thought they were good, went to the sites that they recommended and...well, you know how the rest goes. Next thing I know, people are commenting on my blog, I'm commenting on theirs, I'm signing up at Runners Lounge, etc.. I was now part of some intriguing web 2.0 running group. Here's where I realized the following:

There were other people like me.
There were people that were c-r-a-z-y about running.
There were people that had to balance work, family and running.
There were people that had the same oddball sense of humor that I did.

Innocuous comments on runners' blogs would get me out the door on some days. In a small way, blogging about my runs and reading other blogs had pushed me further into setting goals and training for races that I never thought I'd run.

And for that, I say "thank you".

....and I also say, "If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have been able to experience the pain of plantar fasciitis, IT band problems, been exceptionally unproductive at work, home, etc." I blame it all on you.