21 September 2010

The 53 Runner's Commandments, Part 02.

I haven't laced up my cross-trainers in four days and I'm waaay overdue for some punishment, so I quickly created a new course near the house using Map My Run:


Hays 5K route

After some tweaking, the route is almost exactly 5K so I'm good to go. Only thing is, it can get extremely windy here in Hays and the headwinds are no joke. (Neither is the dust blowing in my face, but there's nothing I can do about that.) I figure the extra resistance will make up for the relative flatness of the terrain though.

Anyway here's the second installment of my thoughts on Joe Kelly's 53 Runner's Commandments [read Part 01].
  1. A bad day of running still beats a good day at work. Or in my case, getting some exercise beats being mostly sedentary for 8+ hours a day.

  2. Talk like a runner. “Singlets” are worn on warm days. “Tank tops” are worn to the beach. Hmmm, I dunno about this. It's kinda venturing into douchebag territory.

  3. Don’t talk about your running injuries. People don’t want to hear about your sore knee or black toe. Unless they can commiserate. Then we can compare battle wounds.

  4. Don’t always run alone.

  5. Don’t always run with people.

  6. Approach running as if the quality of your life depended on it. Because it does.

  7. No matter how slow you run it is still faster than someone sitting on a couch.

  8. Keep in mind that the harder you run during training, the luckier you’ll get during racing. I hope this includes being able to leap over, confidently pass and dodge around fellow racers.

  9. Races aren’t just for those who can run fast. I can't really say I run "fast" yet. I'm still working on shaving down my 5K time to at least an 8.5-minute mile. So I can certainly respect those like me who enter races simply to run them, and not necessarily to compete. Although that might be in the future for me.

  10. There are no shortcuts to running excellence.

  11. The best runs sometimes come on days when you didn’t feel like running. I can attest to this. I went out on a very hot day last month (90+ degrees F) and didn't think I'd last too long. Surprisingly I ended up with a faster-than-usual time for some reason. I dunno, I must have been extra mindful of my breathing that day due to the heat, but it ended up being very beneficial to my run. I was happy.

  12. Be modest after a race, especially if you have reason to brag. Haha -- no reason to brag just yet.

  13. If you say, “Let’s run this race together,” then you must stay with that person no matter how slow. This would be good if I actually had a running buddy.

  14. Think twice before agreeing to run with someone during a race.

  15. There is nothing boring about running. There are, however, boring people who run. Let's hope I'm not one of them.

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