January Runfessions
It’s the last Friday of January (AND THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT- let’s move quickly on to February) which means I’m joining Marcia for Runfessions! My runfession starts with a clothing issue. I’ve been wearing the same few items of clothing for years now. At this point I have one skirt and one nice top, which I wear for every single “dressy” occasion, from my son’s high school graduation, to concerts, to wedding receptions. If I don’t do something drastic, I’ll end up wearing the same thing for my son’s college graduation in May… so I took myself shopping. I don’t even know how to shop anymore. Everything looks either too old or too young for me, and I always end up in the workout section or the pajamas (these are clothes I can understand!) But on this particular day I took the plunge and picked a few items to try on. In a dressing room, with a three-way mirror. Wow, that was depressing. I’d rather not go into details, but I was reminded of Nicole’s excellent post on embracing our changing bodies, while simultaneously grieving for the clothes we have to say goodbye to because they no longer fit. How does this relate to running? I’m getting there… I’ve been saying for a while that I want to run a 50 mile race in 2025. I’ve had my eye on one in April, but for some reason kept putting off registering. I don’t know if it was laziness (think how hard I’ll have to train!) or fear (maybe 50 miles is too hard for me?) or just a general feeling of post-holiday “blah,” but I runfess that I just couldn’t commit to the race. After my discouraging shopping expedition, I came home and REGISTERED FOR THE RACE. Not because I think training for a 50 mile race will transform my body in any way- I’ve given up on that notion long ago- but because I want to take the focus off how my body looks, and put it on what my body can do, where it belongs. You guys! I’m running a 50 mile race, the Skunk Ape Endurance Run on April 26th. Now that I’ve registered, I’m getting excited! Do you have any big, exciting events coming up this year? Do you like shopping for clothes? (I still have nothing to wear…)