My Virtual Running Buddies

With my new subscription to Bloglines, I've been reading more about the topics that interest me. Allowing the aggregator to do the work, it searches the web for blogs and news articles based on specs I have set up. Naturally, I have it looking for information about running.

This morning my feeds included an article published last night about Prineville's Adventist Marathon Clinic. This is a faith-based running club, integrating spiritual and physical fitness. Marathoning for the All-Mighty may be a good way to motivate my feet to move faster.

Or maybe if I were born the child of Zhang Jianmin, a Chinese businessman, running would be easy for me. Instead of wasting my youth on games of Kick-the-Can, Red Rover and Boxball, I would have been running the equivalent of one and a half marathons daily by age eight.

Reading other reluctant runners' stories, blogs and news articles I feel more connected to my brothers and sisters in pain. Commiserating with the way she feels, I chuckled while reading about writer and runner Kelli Young who fessed up to having a questionable running soundtrack, "Baby Got Back." That would fit right in with my "Love Shack" and "Shake Your Groove Thing" playlist that sets my 5K pace. Preparing for my AM hotel treadmill pounding, I am thinking about her perfect simile:

"I was hooked. Addicted to the sense of peace that comes at the end of a run, even on days I silently grouse with each step. Peace. Like the feeling you get after taking Excedrin for a really bad headache. Not until you feel as if your head's ready to explode can you truly appreciate the feeling of relief when it eases."

Sometimes the training seems ludicrous and lonely, so it is comforting to know that there are other amateurs out there, fellow Marathoner-wannabees, trudging along to set our PRs.