Just Like Me!

The other day, I reached under my bed to say hello to my kitty, and I pulled out from under the bed a back issue of Runner's World magazine. What a perfect place for a magazine, huh? It was the December 2011 issue, and, this morning, I carved out a bit of time to read through it. Sweet!

Before getting to today's highlighted topic, I have to give you the back story of my relationship with this magazine. Two years ago, I happened to see an issue on a bookstore magazine stand. I was two months from running my first Half Marathon, and its special theme on the cover caught my eye:

Yup, I still have that first issue (Aug. 2010).
It has a place on honor in the kitchen with
the cook books. That's much more
honorable than under the bed ...

Okay, so reading about the perfect plan for those 13.1 miles that close to my date was a bit mistimed, but I found myself drawn to the article anyway. However, truth be known, I actually purchased the issue because it had a recipe for a non-oil based basil pesto that I simply had to have. Not even kidding. I mean, I was curious about what lurked between the covers, but the recipe served as a great excuse to check the issue out in the privacy of my own home.

It felt a bit strange that I purchased that magazine. Was I saying I was a runner now? Like, a "real" runner? And, what did that even mean? And, was there really that much to read about for this activity? Was I going to be able to relate to anything other than the pesto recipe?

The answer to that last question is a resounding: yes.

After browsing that first issue, I immediately subscribed for 2 years, and even recently renewed for another 2. Today's little gold mine is a great example of why. This morning, I came upon a spread in that December 2011 issue titled, "Who Are You?" reflecting the responses of a Runner's World survey (reporting 3,946 respondents) to a variety of running-related questions. Before looking at the results, I admit I assumed my answers to the questions would put me in the clear minority of Runner's World readers. I was totally okay with that, but check it out -- I was really wrong. Here are some of my favorites:

For the set above, I loved sitting and thinking about those. I loved that in response to, "Why did you start, running?" there is no overwhelming consensus. In fact, it's clear that there are responses that simply didn't make the cut to report. I think that points to showing there probably as many reasons to do it as are people participating. That just tells me everyone is welcome even if we think (or fear) we're not going to fit in! Then, I really loved the second one responding to why we continue: how cool is it that there are so many good reasons that respondents couldn't pick just one?! I couldn't!

Onward with some favorites:

I LOVED THIS ONE. I loved it because I'm in the norm ... on
any typical week, I can be in that 22% or in the 13%, so it turns
out what I thought might be seen as skimpy is normal for most in
this poll. It was nice to feel ... normal. Who doesn't like to fit in?

This made me giggle a bit. It was less than a year ago that my
feet found their first pair of Asics, and my feet fell in big-time
love. That's a relationship I'm not breaking up. It seems I'm
not alone. I love when I'm smart and don't even know it!

This totally cracked me up -- not because of the responses, but
because this was the only section where the answers were
accompanied by exclamation points! Ha! By the way, my
answer isn't here. If I'm going to truly, intentionally reward a
big run, it's with Chinese food, bring on the crab rangoon! I
don't tend to reward long runs, though, or I'd be looking for
any and every excuse in the world to deem a run as "long." Ha!
Diet Coke will do the trick after the weekend long runs; I'll
save the crab rangoon for a Half!

This was great -- it's exactly how I feel.

It's time to enjoy the rest of the day with some pool time to boot! See you after the morning run, ice-cold Diet Coke in hand!