Becoming a runner

Run

Run!!

RUN!!!!!

Well, I think this is the best description of my feelings regarding running…  Imagine a dog running through the field on a sunny day without any thought on his mind, besides this one: I AM RUUUUUUNNIIIING!!! :) OK, now try to transmit that feeling in more or less every moment during the day and don’t forget the dreams too (seriously, I dream to run... :/ ). Adding that will give you a clear picture about the situation in the runners’ minds. When we do not run then, we think about how it was to run or will be to run and we count down the time left before the next run, training, race, coffee with people who run where we will talk about the running or anything associated with the running; for example, going to the running gear store, even though we have everything we need and what we could need for a year or two in advance and, although we have been in the store two days ago, we go there just to see if they got something new, or something which we miraculously missed in the last three-hour tour in the store or we just go to sniff the new running shoes (one of the best smells in the world! It’s a fact! Try to buy new running shoes, open the box and smell it… It smells like VICTORY!!). OK, to finish the small digression I have just made, I believe you now understand what I'm trying to say…

Admittedly, there are people who do not run or they do something else which is not related to the world's most wonderful activity (namely, RUNNING!, if you haven’t been attentive enough so far). However, I’m not interested in them, nor they are in me. We stare at each other with complete lack of understanding, and wonder what’s wrong with the other one...
“You run? And you do not have to? Why??? “
Or: “ You do not run??? Well what else could you do in your life that could be remotely interesting as running? What???”

To clarify the situation more (in case I have been so far unclear), my opinion (more or less) on this issue is the following: RUNNING IS LIFE! LIFE IS RUNNING! There is no why’s, what’s and how’s or other nonsense to be asked. There is no explanation. There is no reason. There are no answers. It. Is. A. Simple. Dogmatic. Fact. There is no need for empirical evidence when you have THE one commandment carved in the stone. THOU SHALT RUN! That's it. Ask any runner and he or she will nod in complete understanding. And that's a fact. 100%. 110%.

This, however, is not something that happens at once. There is no love at first sight. You do not go for a run for the very first time and you know that that is it and you love it until the end of your life… In fact, I would describe it more as a slow descent into the abyss. In fact, free fall into the madness suits it better (in a positive sense, of course, if there is one when it comes to madness). That is what happened to me. Before I started to run, I would be the first one saying that there is no chance whatsoever for me to wear a fluorescent yellow T-shirts, colorful sneakers (OK, sneakers are fluorescent yellow as well, cause I have a “problem” with fluorescent yellow stuff), running tights and to have more than two pairs of sneakers or that I will wear a watch (now I wear a running watch, even when I do not run). And then suddenly,  it’s normal  to have 7-8 pairs of running shoes, 15 running T-shirts (only 4 fluorescent yellow unfortunately) :( , thinner wind jacket, thicker wind jacket, fluorescent yellow wind jacket! :), black vest , fluorescent yellow vest! Yaayy! :) :)  5 pairs of tech socks, compression socks, running watch, a bunch of running waist bags (you can never have too much of those) and a bunch of other things we, the runners, need... It becomes normal for you to sleep in a sponsor race T-shirt, wear  running t-shirts during the day, walk in running shoes as it is generally acceptable dress code in all situations etc...

The process of “free fall” took four months in my case. It went little by little: you start to run small distances and then you run a little bit more, and then you start needing running shoes, and t-shirts, and this and that, and then you run your first 5k on one summer night at 1:30 A.M. and, out of pure happiness, you start jumping up and down like a maniac (because that is what you already are, but you have not yet realized – you are a RUNNING MANIAC :) ) because you are able to run a 5k! And it took you a bit more than 33 minutes and everybody knows that that is the fastest it can be… It is impossible to run 5k faster than that, scientifically proven, definite! I mean, you almost died… But then when you see that you can, it starts: 10k… half marathon… marathon… ultra-marathon…  super ultra-marathon…  here I come!!! And somewhere in the process you become addicted to all the stuff listed above (especially fluorescent yellow stuff which for sure triggers a certain chemical in my brain when I see it, so I can’t help it, it’s a medical condition). The process is very contagious and you can easily “catch it”... You hardly blink and you are already looking at life with your runner’s eyes, and when that happens, it is very difficult to explain why this is so, you just take it for granted, you stop thinking and become a RUNNER.