Run like the wind.

What do you do when you wake up? When you get home from work? In that little slot of time that belongs to you and only you?  For me it usually includes coffee, blogging, facebook, about ten minutes of this little online city building game that I'm addicted to, browsing Pinterest, checking my e-mail, reading a book or any combination of those things.  Occasionally it involves breakfast, and about half of the week it involves a good workout and a run.

I used to never run, not even a little bit.  I would get winded and cranky and for a quarter of a mile and be done.  Then when I was fifteen, my buddy's Dad got drunk and started making fun of me for my inability to run (what I failed to realize at the time was how stupid that was, because neither could he.) but it upset me, to the point where I pushed myself and started really running.  Six months later I could run three seven-minute miles consecutively, I was constantly hungry and high on endorphins. Eventually I balanced it out and just ran as a workout, not to prove anything.  I had new reasons that I wanted to run...

For normal people, these reasons include stereotypical things like feeling the wind in your hair, feeling like you're running away from everything, imagining running trails in the mountain, ultimate inner peace, stuff like that.

Me? I like running, because I know it's good for me, not because it's enjoyable.  But what really comes to my mind when someone talks about running? Zombies.

Hear me out:
Of course I want to feel good in my skin, to regain energy, to inspire myself to be healthier.  But seriously, I come from a family of loud men, and my fiance is no exception.  We have a thing for watching Zombie television together, as twisted as it sounds, we get quite a kick out of it.  The Walking Dead, Zombieland, Shawn Of The Dead, you name it.  Every time I think of running on my treadmill (the hamster wheel, as it is affectionately known in my house) I think of that one scene in Zombieland where they list all of the rules and "Cardio" pops up as one of them.  And then that fat kid gets totally eaten alive by zombies.  I always thought that would be a horrible way to go, and when the apocalypse happens maybe I'll be able to outrun something that's trying to get me.  So while outrunning zombies is not the most important thing on my motivational list, it is the most memorable.

I hope that your reasons are more sane than mine, but if they aren't, at least you're still running!

Love,
Alice