A Passion for Running

After my race this past Thursday, I took Friday off and then did something totally unexpected and unusual. I skipped my Saturday morning run with “the guys” aka Tom and Aaron.

My quads were still like lead Friday so Aaron and I talked about rollerblading along side Tom who still planned on running 16 miles. Then, as I returned home from work the heaven’s opened and it poured rain all Friday evening. I’m talking RAIN. It was a heavy, pounding torrent for at least 12 hours straight!

I woke up Saturday to the pounding and considered two options. One – I could rollerblade as planned. That didn’t seem wise at all. Have you ever tried blading in the rain? Can you say slippery?. I’da probably killed myself. Option two – run 10 miles with Tom and my tired sore quads and let him finish the rest on his own. That plan didn’t sound very good either but it seemed the lesser of evils so I walked downstairs to get my gear. Then, (Thank God) Aaron called and said Tom had decided to cancel his run so we were all off the hook.

WHEW!!

In the past three years I bet Tom, Aaron and I have missed a total of five Saturday morning runs (including this past weekends run). So what’s so weird about cancelling a Saturday run? After all, it’s just ONE run right?

To be sure, one of the reasons we are so dedicated is because it’s precious male-bonding time. Another is that we are usually training for a marathon and missing long runs is NOT advisable under those circumstances.

However, there is a third reason which I think is the most important of all. It’s that all three of us know how hard it is to establish a consistent running habit. We also know how easy it can be to fall out of that habit. In other words, you miss one run and it’s easier to miss the next one.

So, we have a kind of unspoken rule – we don’t miss runs unless we have very little choice in the matter. The three of us really count on one another.

I say all of this knowing that I have to miss this coming Saturday’s run too (God forbid – TWO Saturday’s in a row!) because I am photographing my cousin’s wedding – argh.

Oh well, things will get back to normal.

It’s kind of like of one of those unbreakable laws of nature – like rain falling to the ground.