"I think you just know if you're a runner from the beginning"

"I think you just know if you're a runner from the beginning" (or some such thing) is what the lady at the coffee shop said to me this morning when I came in all sweaty and exhausted from running.

No.

The time I started running that I actually kept at it the longest (this most recent time) I was in pain for a while. I remember my arches killing me. And going really slow. And falling down; I remember falling down. Running usually made me feel better about myself and my body, but it didn't always make me feel great as it was happening.

How'd we get on this topic?

This morning I went for a run with the St Paul runners. I love this route but it includes a fairly mean hill; it's super steep. I've made it up this hill a couple of times in my life, usually when I was running alone and at my own pace. The St Paul ladies are a bit (ha! just a bit) faster than I am and I try my best to keep up with them. Meaning I usually run out of gas about half-way up this hill.

Not today! I made it all the way up!

I'm learning that running faster means letting my body just feel more uncomfortable and not panicking about that discomfort. (It's a process.) This was I think the fastest run of that distance I've ever done, alone or with company. It was right around an 11:00 mile, maybe faster because I had to walk a block at the end (for intestinal reasons, speaking of discomfort). Remember when I ran a 10k at an 11:00 pace for the first time? Today was great and I had a great time.

We end our run at this big intersection right by a donut shop. (Why does firefox think "donut" isn't a word?) Well, coffee-shop-lady literally saw us at this intersection chatting and stretching after our run while she was driving to work.

I stopped in to the actual coffee shop after the run and told me that she'd seen me and we started talking about running. She said she couldn't do it. The other girl there said she was a cyclist. The cyclist-coffee-shop-girl made some comment about feeling like it's ok to eat Chipotle after a "couple miles" of riding. What!? Ultimately, it was probably working for her.

I keep forgetting today is Sunday. I have almost no memory of Saturday. I remember being emotionally bombarded at the School of Social Work graduation and then, nothing. I have no idea what else I did yesterday. I'm planning on making today equally unproductive.