Whenever I think of runners, pictures come to mind of lithe slim athletic looking people bounding down the road or on a track, they have long strides, and seem to run effortlessly and gracefully towards their goal.
They look like they were born being able to run. Their balance seems to come from a place within, and I find myself trying to work out how they do that. How do they know.?
And then I started to think, what makes a runner. At what point can you call yourself a runner? If you run for 5 minutes, does that make you a runner, or even if you start to train to be a runner, can you define yourself as a runner.? Perhaps it’s based on distance, if you can run for 20 minutes you can call yourself a runner.
Usain Bolt is a runner, no doubt about it, an amazing runner, the words best over his preferred distance, we can all agree. So what about the girl who comes home after work and happily pulls on a pair of trainers and runs 5km every night. She’s a runner. She clearly loves it, looks forward to it, and runs often. What about the weekend warrior? Someone who keeps their run for the weekend and goes for a jog, loves it and feels wonderful when it is over. Surely they are a runner.
What about body types. Should you be smaller and very light to be a long distance runner such as one sees at the Olympics, and therefore not attempt long distance if you are taller and heavier built. What about not being so lean, should we all go on big diets to lose weight in order for us to become runners.
Where does that leave you and me. Those of us just starting out. We’d like to be runners. We can visualize running some distance and loving it, moving down the road, the wind in our hair, our feet moving under us freely and lightly, smiling at other runners as we pass each other. The fact that I am right now finding the whole thing difficult and puzzling, and that its hard, and that before I go for a run I have to really psyche myself up for it, and tell myself I can do it, is beside the point. I have decided I am a runner, and whilst not a very good one – yet – that’s how I want to think of myself, and so should you.