Running and "Ruggles"

There are as many reasons to run as there are runners, I suppose, but I’ve never met a runner who didn’t enjoy it. The bottom line is that whether you’ve run a marathon in all 50 states, have run for 30 years, or just completed your first 5K, the thing that all runners have in common is the love of the sport.

Try explaining that, however, to my non-running friends and family members, (I refer to them as Ruggles, such as in Harry Potter, where non-magical folk are referred to as Muggles). Don’t get me wrong, most of my friends and relatives (the ones I still speak to anyway) support and encourage what I do. But more often than not, you hear things like: “The only time I’ll run is when someone is chasing me.”

My dear mother told me years ago that if I ran track, I would get muscles in my legs. Heaven forbid!

Or what about the portly relation in Houston who asked me why I run so much? “Because it allows me to eat what I want,” I replied. “But I already eat whatever I want and I don’t have to run for it,” he said, patting his rotund belly. “In fact, they bring the food to me.”

In 2002, I excitedly told a friend in Seattle that I completed my first half-marathon. Without missing a beat, he asked, “What happened to the other half?” I THINK he was kidding. I’m not sure.

And then there’s, “You run in this cold weather?” “You run in this heat?” “You run in the rain?” Yes, yes, and yes!

I have a nephew who’s an orthopedic surgeon down in Houston. While some part of me likes to think he’s proud of his aunt, he always makes “tsk-tsk-ing” noises when I tell him some of the distances I run. “You keep that up and you’ll be coming to see me in few years and it won’t be for a social visit,” he said.

The kid (he will always be a kid to me) has a point, since he tells me that more than half of his patients are athletes or former athletes. But, you know, you can end up in the orthopedist’s office after having spent your life as a couch potato, too. That being said, I prefer my life off the coach and on the roads.

To me, running is as much a part of my life's routine as is brushing my teeth, although running is much more pleasurable and far less routine. Yes, there are some risks (to joints, tendons, muscles, vertebrae, etc.) involved but that can be said of ANYTHING in life that’s worth pursuing. The benefits far outweigh any of the little aches and pains I may encounter along the way.