You might be a runner if ... (Read 737 times)

Okay, so something unexpected came up. Not a good thing. A crappy family situation I might have to deal with. I may be going out of state for a while, with no notice whatsoever. It would turn my whole life upside down, and pretty much screw up the next couple of months. This sucks. Of course. Normal people would just drink heavily. Which I'm working on. ... but suppose you're a runner. What do you do in this situation? In fact, what was the second thing I did? (After the obligatory cursing, throwing things, and drinking ...) Your pop quiz question: what exactly did I do? What does someone with an unhealthy running problem do in this situation? What was the very first thing my addled brain latched onto? I'll grade your answers in the morning. I already know who will be first to answer. I even know that they'll guess right, too. I'm looking into a 12-step program in the morning. And not for the drinking. This just isn't normal.

The first thing I did when I found out we had to go to a family reunion out of state in June was to get online and see if there were going to be any races in the area while we were there.

Right in one. Exactly. My first response to some unexpected (and unwanted) travel plans was to check marathonguide.com. This is not normal behavior.

Run. And drink. And search RA for maps of the area. And yes. I check marathonguide before I travel ANYWHERE. I will be in Cleveland for a wedding in three weeks. One smack week after the Cleveland marathon. I thought about calling my wife's friend to suggest she change the wedding date.

See? When your behavior starts to resemble Trent's .... there may be problems.

Also check active.com (I know, they're evil, but it's a god way to at least find races). Heh.....Last year I went with my wife to some week-long work thing down in Austin. First, I started looking up running routes (Town Lake had a convenient running path), then I looked up any races (nothing worthwhile....WTF? Stupid Austin), then I looked up running stores (RunTex is cool). A whole week with nothing to do during the day....I ran and walked. Alot. It was fun. About the only thing I wished I had at the time was a Garmin to help track my distances a little better....... Monkeyman, I hope whatever's going on isn't too bad. But whatever it is, we're here for ya, and you can always run anywhere.

Hey, if you get lucky and come up around the Philly area, I'll take you to some races, and probably a couple bars. Ok, maybe one race, and several bars.

Post potential location here to make sure you know the RA ambassadors in the destination area. Search for running clubs in said area to determine if there are any weekly evening or weekend group runs. Check running stores in destination area for similar information. Stop being so freakin' secretive about where so your RA buds can kick into gear and help out! Oh, and start packing all your running gear... Lynn B

No reason to feel bad about continuing what you enjoy ... running. I frequently look up events, running paths and build route maps prior to travel. Gives me something to look forward to while away from home.

I skipped this morning's big university commencement ceremony to go running. (Well, I didn't want to go to it anyway, having been through the more important ceremony on Thursday, but still!)