I Am An Accidental Runner

I am an accidental runner. This year, well as of this writing, I have completed, raced and run a total of 83 kilometers. That is not counting kms on the treadmill and training! I am pretty impressed with myself considering that I never really intended to go into running when I wrote my new year's resolution in the beginning of 2008.

I am an accidental runner. My husband and my best friend started this craze in late 2007. They started running and training and joining races that year. And I, being the supportive wife and best friend, would always be there for them at the finish line. It quite got boring waiting for them especially when they started getting serious about running and raced longer distances. The 5km races turned to 10km; and my waiting time increased from 30mins to 1hour... Hah!

I am an accidental runner. I asked myself "Hmm.. maybe I can run 5km while I wait for them to finish their 10kms?!" And so it came to pass, I started to run short distances just so I could kill some waiting time. Then after few 5km races, I asked myself again-- "Maybe I can run 10km together with them?!-- that way no more waiting time!" And I did! And most times they waited for me- payback time?!

I am an accidental runner. My best friend have long ascended into being a serious "marathoner" (is this even a word?). She has gone to different parts of the world to run half-marathon distances. She is a certified and a true-blue runner! Whereas my husband and I have found solace and bonding time training for and running 10km races.

I am an accidental runner. But now I think my husband is once again upping the ante. He has started to buy all these gadgets and accessories to increase training efficiency and track his progress, Uh-oh. As for me, I am still in that love/hate stage with running. And the new NB ad says it all for me- "running is a balance between joy and pain, work and play".

I am an accidental runner. I am in a constant struggle to love or hate running. I am not giving up though- maybe this is how it is supposed to be! otherwise, there is no gratification.