Just Running a Race

Today I finally got myself out of my chair and away from work to go for a run. It had been far too long.
I’ve been dreading an outdoor run for some time now. I know I need to go running, because I’m running a 5k next week, but I just couldn’t find the motivation.
You see, I no longer live in anonymity in my small town any more. As a writer for a small town newspaper, people know my name. They recognize me.
Gone are the days of putting aside my embarrassment of running in public and saying, “so what, I don’t know anyone anyways” and heading out the door for a run.
But I decided to come out of hiding. After all, I do have running goals.
I wore my big, black I’m a celebrity and don’t want to be recognized sunglasses, but they didn’t really help. At least I felt like I was hiding, right? Have an eye for sunglasses?
I received a whole lot of waves and friendly smiles today. I mean a lot. On every block, there was at least one it seemed. But it was ok. I told myself to be proud and give it my all. At least I was out there. And seriously Alissa, NO ONE looked at you like you were a big, giant blob running down the street. It’s all in your head.
So from now on, I’ll just pretend every outdoor run is a race. And all of those friendly, smiling people waving at me are just spectators cheering me on. Yeh, that’s how I’ll think of it from now on.
I may be the only one running the race, but guess what? I won.
I aimed for 1 mile, but looked at my GPS at what I thought was 1/2 mile, and it was only a mile! So I ran 2. 1 mile for me, and 1 mile for my buddy, Jessica. And this is how I felt when I was done. It was 82 degrees outside!!