Thursday, Feb. 2

Well, blame week one of 1/2 marathon training starting, but I've been spending lots of time reading running blogs and came upon these two quotes by John "The Penguin" Bingham. I read his book No Need For Speed last semester and it helped me out so much! I'm not a particularly fast runner and I'm working on learning to appreciate running just for the sake of running, not for doing it fast. Bingham focuses (in case you hadn't guessed it from his nickname) on running for the enjoyment of it, not the speed. He talks a lot about how to make sure you feel good and take care of yourself while running. He stresses how you should run a race because you want to be running, not because you want to beat everyone else (although if some PR's happen, that's awesome too). Reading almost anything he says always makes me feel really encouraged and proud of myself for starting to run. I leave you with two of my favorites from him. "If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." "Our running shoes are really erasers. Every step erases some past failure. Every mile brings us closer to a clean slate. Each foot strike rubs away a word, a look, or an event which led us to believe that sucess was beyond our grasp."