Obsessed Runner Blog
2022.03.09 - You can skip the run
When it comes to the daily run it’s a personal choice if we run, or skip it. We sometimes need to be reminded that, this is what we do for fun! As my friend John A. says, “If it’s not fun, don’t do it!” Life throws a ton of stress our way, stress we may have little control over. Running on the other hand, might come with some stress but it’s stress we put upon ourselves, stress we control. So, go run and beat yourself up on the run, but don’t beat yourself up if you skip the run or the run goes bad or race goes bad or any negative aspect of running, even an injury. When you finish a run, if you’re not smiling it’s time to rethink things.
Run, smile, repeat, or don’t run, it’s OK!
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who just took 3 days off, mostly by choice … And I am writing this as a reminder to myself as usual!
2022.03.02 - Running, pain, and joy
Running seems so simple, one foot follows another as we go from point A to point B. The reality is much deeper. Running is difficult on many levels. It is physically hard, taxing all systems of the body from muscles, tendons and ligaments to the lungs, heart, veins and arteries. Runnning is mentally difficult from the time management required to fit the run in to our busy lives to the constant struggle with our brain and body trying to convince us to walk. To the non-runner, the big question must be, why? To the runner, especially just after finishing a few, or many, punishing miles, the answer to this question is as complicated and deep as the run itself, perhaps with no adequate way to explain the pure joy of what we just did, without experiencing it.
Let’s go earn that joy,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who often feels miserable during the run but always finishes feeling grateful for what the run has given back to me, exponentially more than what I put into it. Amen.
2022.02.23 - Running, writing, and magic
Like so many things that take discipline, without the mindset, nothing happens. Some days, the body, mind, or both, are just not having it. Runner’s block, writer’s block … Over time, and from small successes along the way, we learn the tricks as we jump the blocks and move forward. It’s just hard work but we do it, staying committed to the goal and the results. Results that when they come, for some unknown reason, feel like magic. Magic, because until you cross that finish line or finally hold your published book in your hand, you feel unchanged, then, Kaboom! OMG, I just did this? There is no “just” about it but the minute you cross that finish line, you have created a you that was never there before. Sure, the reality is that all the hours and hard work were done before the magic day but on that day, what you have accomplished finally becomes a part of you. The run, the book or whatever you worked so damn hard on instantly is there to forever enrich all aspects of life from that second on. Magic.
Let’s make the magic happen,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, who, like magic, will forever be, a 2:45 marathon runner, a Kona Ironman finisher, and a published running writer … even if that 2:45 was 30 years ago!