Indecisive Runner Seeks Inspiration

I’ve always been the type of person who excites easily. It doesn’t take much to make my eyes light up and cause my voice to rise a few octaves; Kellogg’s cereal is buy two get one free? Miss Congeniality is on TV? With limited commercial breaks? Change it right now! (don’t judge me, Benjamin Bratt looks damn good in the movie). The point is I get really excited about things without always thinking them through. You don’t exactly need a pro’s-and-con’s list for an impulse bargain at the supermarket, or turning the tube to your favorite guilty pleasure. My problem is that I get an idea in my head, tell everyone about it in my excitement, and after my excitement spreads like wildfire and it’s time to do something about the idea, I’m all “eh, I don’t know.”

Case in point: My love/hate relationship with running has been surprisingly more love than hate in the last year or so, and I was seriously considering making my new year’s resolution to run a half-marathon. I didn’t tell anyone (b/c who needs accountability?) that I was looking into this. I found a race in September, which would give me plenty of time to train, looks totally do-able for a first-timer, and has the added bonus of being in Philadelphia. My sister Sarah lives outside of Philly. She’s done a half-marathon before (not to mention a triathlon, warrior dashes, and countless road races; she’s pretty awesome), so I knew it wasn’t out of the question to not only stay with her for this half-marathon, but also have a running buddy. My excitement level was through the roof. I called her at work, sent her an email with all the deets, and texted her to check her email immediately (so much for my “no accountability” plan).

She was excited about the half-marathon. And the best part is, we have until, like, April to decide. Plenty of time to hype myself up then chicken out like I always do. Sarah threw a wrench in this plan when she mentioned the Broad Street Run, a 10 mile race in May. She’s done it before and said it’s a flat course and one of the best races she’s ever ran (and her best friend Michele is doing it, too, and I haven’t seen her or her beautiful babies since last summer!) So I checked it out. It does look pretty awesome. Philly, like Boston, has such a rich history, and running through all that would be pretty rad.

The problem with all this is that registration for the Broad Street run opens today. Sarah said that last year it sold out in three days; it’s kind of a big deal. This is the epitome of what I do; get excited about something, hype it up as the best thing ever, then after my excitement simmers a little, I forget about it. But now I can do something about it; I can change this flaky habit today! (and there’s no harm in registering; if I don’t end up running the race, I’m only out $40 bucks, right?)

Seriously, though, if I could run this race in May, I’d feel a lot better about doing a half-marathon in September. And it would give me the motivation I need to kick this rut I’ve been in. Cue crazy excitement!!! Let’s just hope fear doesn’t replace it this time.

Comments

Michele said…
And we are in! So you are totally stuck now! :)
Sarah said…
You can do it!!! I am going to talk to you about training plans so we can keep each other accountable. And cue the excitement: we still have to plan our matching outfits!!