Won't you breathe with me?

Sad runner.

Now that the dust has settled, that my training is concluded and the race has been run, let me speak on behalf of long distance runners.

Stop being an ass when talking to your friends who are long-distance runners.

This summer there was an article on a certain website which flogged a recent British Psychology Society study which determined that most long distance runners (which in this study meant people running for eight miles) are miserable when running.

A lot of people made sure I knew about this article. To see if this is true. Because I'm a fucking moron or something because I run long distances.

Now I don't know anything about this study, only what I read condensed in that one blarticle. I do know I ran 26.2 miles on earlier this month - which isn't even a normal distance for me, you know - and I wasn't miserable. I was only feeling discomfort the last few miles, and no one thinks that football players or soccer players become "miserable" when pushing their abilities from playing their sport.

Who are these people, these people who run eight miles and are asked to record their thoughts while running, and for three minutes out of ten babble about how in pain they are? I don't have a clue. I would recommend they choose a different exercise routine. They should just freaking stop.

So should the people who keep asking their running friends if it's true they are totally stupid for running.

Distance: 3.2 miles
Avg Pace: 7:38
Route: Boulevard Loop

I don't like being negative on this blog. Don't be negative with me, okay?

Temperature: 57°
Climate: cool with light rain
Weight: 159.5 lbs.
Mood: anxious

What's That Lyric?
Born Under Punches - Talking Heads

I put my faith in something unknown.

When I was thirteen, and vacationing with my family in Maine, I waited for the mail to come. In particular, there was a girl I liked and my brother who was at home told me over the phone that she had sent me a letter and so I knew it was coming, but not on which day. All morning I would wait, anxious, expectant.

When I did not arrive, I was despondent for a time, but the anxiety dulled until the next morning when it rose again and I walked out to check the communal mailbox every half-hour starting at 10 am. The day it finally arrived, what a charge!

When I was a twenty-three year-old, I was on a bbs with a small number of like-minded internet pioneers. I would check that every hour or so, to see who had posted what recently. Days might go by without anything, but the idea of there being a message, a thought, an argument to become engaged in, it was like Christmas, every day.

Checking my email, on a regular basis. Or sitting on Facebook, for hours. It satisfies the same desire, for connection, to know someone likes me, wants to communicate with me. I don't like FB flame wars, they make me miserable and sad. I want to be charming and witty and admired. Every moment. All the time.

Running also makes me feel like I am liked. After my five-mile race last Thursday, driving home from Bay Village, I was feeling a little disappointed, less than satisfied. And I thought, you know what would make me feel better? A run.

Running makes me feel like running.

Temperature: 72°
Climate: sunny. nice. summer.
Distance: 3.25 miles

Running in daylight. More people on the sidewalk, cars on the street. More glare, hard to see.

Dreaming of New York.

On the Tens Playlist
Na Na Nothing - Mike Doughty
Sweet Nothing - Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch
Tightrope * - Janelle Monáe ft. Big Boi
Dynamite (Mixin Marc Remix) - Taio Cruz
The Walk - Mayer Hawthorne
Rolling In The Deep - Adele
Somebody That I Used To Know (DJ Mike D Remix) - Gotye ft. Kimbra