Running: 3 Things You Hate, 3 Things You Love

Love:

1. Competition

2. Fitness - looking good, feeling healthy

3. Runner chicks

Hate:

1. Societal ignorance

2. Injuries

3. The cost of shoes

Love:

Long Runs

Intervals

Kicking that one kid's ass in a race that edged you at the line the year before

Hate:

Easy Runs

Lack of understanding by the general public for running

Limited Social Life

love-

1. long trail runs on Sunday mornings at Our Lady of the Trails

2. any distance run or workout with my girlfriend (a hot runner chick)

3. post run/workout shower/sex with girlfriend

hate-

1. stopping for traffic on road runs

2. treadmills when the weather outside sucks

3. achilles tendinitis

Hate:

1. Running

2. Running

3. Running

Love:

1. Being able to eat what I want

2. Chocolate milk

3. Ice baths to help my infertility

Love:

1. Cresting the last long uphill

2. Realizing during a race “it’s my day”

3. That hot shower after the run

Hate:

1. Stepping outside on a dark morning to discover the ground is covered in a layer of ice and the run is off

2. Closing in on the guy ahead and suddenly get leg cramps

3. Mis-measured race course

love -

1. eating a lot and still being healthy

2. competing and the general feeling of running fast

3. you can do it anywhere, in many countries, and compete at any age, much more easily than in a team sport like baseball or a sport that's harder to organize like swimming

hate -

1. the fact that running is ultimately limited by some physical talent - of course, all things are, but i like sports with a little more of a mental aspect. For example, i wouldn't have a chance at beating a fit bekele over 10k, but say if i played golf against a really good golfer, there's a chance i would win by luck or outsmarting him. It's common to see 10th-ranked teams in college win national championships, but for this reason in XC championships there are usually only 1-5 real contending teams at best.

2. it's a dying sport in many areas and people are uneducated about it.

3. there are other fun sports to play, but when you mostly hang out with runners you don't get to play them as much. running honestly is not my (only) favorite sport but it's the easiest to find people to compete with without organizing a whole league of teams.

Hate

1) The selfish nature of the sport

2) Looking like a concentration camp survivor

3) Being around douchebags who think running a fast mile makes them super cool

Like

1) Endorphins

2) Wolfing down large quantities

3) Living longer and healthier, assuming you dont go overboard with your running.

Love: Running

Hate: When the day comes when I don't want to anymore

Love

1- the feeling of an effortless long run, workout, or race, where you feel like you could go on forever

2- laying on my back on the track after a good workout. I feel so at peace and everything is right in the world.

3- Everyone tells me I look much younger than I am.

Hate

1- Injuries

2- rough patches in training that seem to go on for months

3- people who ask your advice on training, then don't follow it.

Love:

Winning races

Getting recognition for achievements

All the girls being a distance runner brings

Hate:

Being injured

Getting sick

Having terrible races.

love

1. the 20 minute orgasm after a phenomenal race

2. being in a rhythm

3. walking someone down

hate

1. Coulda, woulda, shoulda runners

2. People who can't talk about anything else but running

3. Not being a distance runner

Love

1. Challenging myself everyday

2. That sense of accomplishment after finishing a run

3. Eating yummy food that I earned

Hate

1. Stress fractures

2. Slow runners that criticize other people for not training "smart" like they do

3. Tired of people saying I have to take a day off every week

Love

1) Adventure in the outdoors

2) Self-reflection and philosophizing

3) Competition against my past self, the clock, and others.

Hate

1) Commercialization of racing

2) "Runners" who bitch about how much they hate running, and then say when they finish a race: "but it's all so WORTH it"

3) Running stores and athletic corporations that accessorize and complicate the inherent, simple, agonizing beauty of the sport.

Love:

1. Singletrack through Aspen trees

2. Being alone on a run in the mountains

3. Having my legs hurt so bad it wakes me up in the middle of the night.

Hate:

1. Races that fill up in 5 minutes with people who need to accomplish something just to check it off a list.

2. People so droned out by their i pod that when you pass them on a trail they jump, scream and act as if they are the only person on the planet that would be on the trail.

3. Vibram 5 fingers

Love: 1. Knowing you can run further and faster than most people in the world

2. Sense of accomplishment

3. Everyone knows you on campus because you are always running with your shirts off

4. My team

Hate: 1. Lack of Appreciation from non-runners

2. Being Tired all the time

3. My fingers throbbing after running in the cold for too long with not enough hand protection

Love:

that first cool, dry morning of fall when you feel invincible. I spend all summer daydreaming and anticipating that day, and it never disappoints.

starting a long run in the tranquil pre-dawn when the moon and stars are still bright, then trying to guess how far I'll have gone before I first see the sunlight hit the treetops.

seeing a different side of a lot of great places in the world where I've had the chance to run.

that I can casually run alongside a legend of the sport like Bill Rodgers in a major race, but if I was a decent amateur golfer, I could never play the US Open with, say, Jack Nicklaus...

Hate:

that I don't have enough free time to run as much as I'd like.

feeling like I have to avoid a favorite route because a particularly large and aggressive unleashed dog lives along it.

that I chose to play football in HS instead of running.

LOVE:

Running--I don't care if it's an easy run, a hard training effort, or a race; I don't care if it's -10 or 115... it's all good (of course, since I'm injured now, probably forever, this may be a bit of revisionist history)

Goofy running stories that really have little to do with running

Travelling to races

HATE:

Injuries

Fat guys who claim to be 4 minute milers

Pollution

Hate:

1. Old ladies who ask if I need a ride somewhere when it's cold and can't understand why I'm out running.

2. Getting pumped up for a race then failing epically.

3. Long runs alone

Love:

1. Setting a PR

2. Hunting noobs down in the last 400

3. INTERVALS!!!!!

3 things I love about running:

1. To feel free

2. Keeps me humble

3. Love the final kick in a race

3 things I hate about running:

1. The feeling of I woulda, coulda, shoulda in a race

2. It tries to defeat me

3. It exposes my weakness