I got the shoes. Musing on finding desire. #running

I got the shoes. Musing on finding desire. #running

Signing up for races is easy.

Click.

Then all you have to do is show up on race day and have great time. Right?

Wrong.

Well, not so much wrong, that’s just not all of it. Not by a long shot.

In between the click of signing up and crossing the finish line, there needs to be some running.

Running of appropriate amount for the distance signed on to run.

I registered for the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon as is my custom every year. It’s as much a part of my holiday as turkey, pumpkin pie and a long pre-winter nap. I must admit when I first started running this race it was a Yippee. I run 13.1 miles, then can eat all I want!  mentality.

Slowly but surely, subtly like the ever-deepening crinkles around my eyes when I smile, the 13.1 miles became more than a megaton calorie burner, it became part of me; my life story.

Every fourth Thursday of November, I wake up early. Get coffee and bagel and drive into Atlanta. Meet some people waiting around. Talk in a brief, clipped, we’re-about-to run-this-thing way about their stories. Run my race and drive home.

This year….I’ve run this fall. But taken long runs? Not so much.

Not like usual. Not like someone seriously preparing to run this race might run.

Yesterday, I saw a friend running. She is training for this race. It will be her first half marathon. She stopped for a moment with our running group and said she was on mile 10. And off she went.

She looked tired, but happy. Exerted but excited.

I need to find a little spark of that in me again. Running is like any lifelong relationship. Passion comes and goes…burns bright, then it comes to lacing up those shoes one more time and your like….for pity’s sake.

So in the wet…I’m heading out today, a week out from Thanksgiving.

I got the shoes. Got to put in some miles.

Here’s to finding some desire about mile 6.

Have you ever signed up for something, something you were excited about doing….then found it hard to put in the mileage necessary to complete the task?