Hey all!  I’m another Jen, from Boston.  I like to workout and run and get my sweat on.  Alot.  I stumbled upon Jen’s blog here by way of Athena over at Fitness and Feta.  I’ve been running and training for half marathons this year and now can’t seem to stop signing up for them (3 just this year!).  I also work for a travel agency that specializes in marathon travel to races all over the world, so I’m pretty much surrounded by healthy people all the time.  Thanks to Jen for letting me write a post!

IN MY HEAD AS I RUN

Many times when I am running the longer miles I have a lot of random thoughts pop into my head.  I get so into these thoughts that I don’t even realize what song is blasting through my iPod.

Some days they go a little like this:

“I think I will be okay running 10 miles this weekend.  It’s not that far.  Its just 6 more miles than today’s run.”  Really?  Who am I?

“I can’t believe there could be snow on the ground in 3 months.  I mean, 3 months ago we were dying for summer and now its almost gone.  So not fair.  I’m writing a letter to Obama to make summer longer.”

“But I do really love winter because I can snowboard all the time.  Maybe all the winter storms will be up north this year and not gridlocking Boston.”

“What am I going to do with 7 more days of vacation this year?”  For real I need suggestions!

“There should be at least one 3 day weekend a month.”  This would be the basis of my Presidential platform.

“Olympic athletes are pretty ripped.  Maybe I could pick a sport and become an Olympian.  Something like archery.   Or ping pong table tennis.  Or walking.  I can walk pretty well and I’ve been doing it most of my life.  Actually curling in the Winter Olympic really fascinates me.  And why are the Canadians so good at it?”

“How is canoeing an Olympic sport but not baseball.  Or softball.”

Yesterday however was VERY humid and hot in Boston during my mid-day run.  And there were tourists EVERYWHERE getting in my way.  Clearly they did not get the lesson on how to properly walk on a sidewalk when they were growing up.  Please pick a side and stick with it.  And also hurry it up a little bit.  Seriously, slow people really annoy me on the sidewalk.  It’s like they know I am behind them trying to get by and then they purposefully go even slower.  Anyone else ever experience this?

Then I started to notice people.  Like the elderly couple wearing a button down long sleeve shirt and a sweater on a 90 degree day.  Do you really get that cold when you get old?  Or the people walking all over the sidewalk as they listen to their iPod/text.  I really can’t predict where you are going so please just pick a side and stick to it.  I also can’t help it if I happen to run into you because of you sidewalk indecisiveness.

But most of the time when I am running I’m just thinking.  It’s very refreshing to just be by yourself sometimes and clear your head.  I think about new recipes I want to try out, places I want to travel to, things I need to get done (laundry, grocery store, etc), can it really be 30+ years until I can reitre, what would I do if I won the lottery, and so on.

Whether I am running for 30 minutes or 2+ hours I get through it and feel really great afterwards.   Sometimes you just got to get out there and get it done.  Next time you do, look around, think to yourself, and have FUN!

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Thanks Jen!!!