My Hate, Hate Relationship With Running

If you've wandered through the pages of this website, you've seen pictures of me running and a spreadsheet of times of hundreds of races that I've run. That might lead you to believe that I like it. After all, no one would do something that much if they really hated it. Well, I do. I despise running. 

I've never once gotten a "runners high." I'd certainly like to feel that once but it has never occurred. To be honest, the first 200 feet of a run aren't that bad but then the anguish sets in and it never leaves. It feels like someone is holding a plastic bag over my head while someone else is beating me on the legs with a stick. I never get a second wind. I never get a chance to get in a rhythm and let the miles tick off. It's odd because people think (and so do I) that I should be able to run faster. To like it more. But the truth is that I can't go faster and I can't like what I don't like.

Why do I run if I hate it so much? Because it works. I've tried everything from biking, to swimming, to playing basketball, to jumping rope. Nothing builds my cardio endurance and helps me fight the "battle of the bulge" like running. I rarely think about whether I'm going to like something or not to do it, if it must be done. I hear people talk often about doing things that they like or are good at. Too easy. The test of character comes when you do what you don't like or aren't particularly good at, when it needs to be done. 

So here's my strategy. I run three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I try to find a race for Saturday. I run on Tuesday and Thursday so that I won't look like too much of an idiot on race Saturday. I have a time in mind (that I rarely hit). My motivation to run during the week is that I know that race is coming up. Maybe not this Saturday but one soon. Then on Saturdays, I race because I've already spent the time training during the week and I don't want it to go to waste. So they all need each other. Without the Saturday race, I wouldn't run during the week. Without the running during the week, I wouldn't race on Saturday. 

Some say that I'm a fool to spend that much time doing something that I don't like. Some say that I secretly like running and I just don't realize it. WTF?  I hate running and running hates me.

In the end, I get the cardio done and people can think what they want.