Love thy self

It seems like a simple prescription right? Love your self. Be kind to your self. Walk with mercy and grace.

In the world of runners I have learned that this can be a hard thing to do. On the whole 99.99% of runners are amazing, ultra likable human beings. But there is that .01% that gives a bad name to what I have learned to be a really great community.

I remember a few months back being on the verge of a victory as I was mastering track running after being off running for three months following a work injury. I came off the track feeling like a million dollars because I had trimmed my track time down from a 19 minutes mile to a few seconds under 15. I was stoked. 

Than it happened. That bad apple had been watching me in his wierd nepolean dynomite shorts and glasses, poised to swoop down in that moment and rain on my baby runner parade. "You were practically walking."

Lets be clear on one thing: my mother taught me never to hit boys.

I did not... but I walked away feeling defeated.

In my home I live by the T.H.I.N.K rule.

T- Is it true?
H- Is it helpful?
I- Is it inspiring?
N- Is it necessary?
K- Is it kind?

As runners I have learned we can be our own best and word enemies as individuals. My self talk can be my best coach and the worst of hecklers. My body shows me the most amazing gains while reminding me the next day that pain is a part of that process. My community of runners (I'm looking at you Misfits!) lifts me and celebrates with me to show me that the lousy .01% that exist out there do not represent the amazing community of runners who exists globally in this little world of ours. 

Being a highly competitive person it crushed me to have someone judge me. You don't know my story! Just a year earlier I was 160 pounds heavier and had literally had a mini stroke! I was dying a day at time battling obesity, high blood pressure and severe sleep apnea. Running a mile wasn't something I could do, I was lost. This person judged me without know who I was and more importantly who I am becoming! I wish I could go back to this person and share these things. I did not.. I walked away and I cried in my car because deep down I am still tender hearted. 

I don't know what the dudes problem was. Maybe he was picked on as a kid. Maybe he is just a bully, or maybe in the end he was lonely and needed a soap box to lift him. I forgive him for his douchery. Somewhere he has a mother who loves him and in the end Jesus loves him too I suppose.

I have really been digging CASS on my running play list and I think it really puts everything in to perspective.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones... 

but only you can make these dry bones come alive."

Life is short. Lets be kind to one another as runners. Slow runners make fast runners look amazing, fast runners inspire slow runners. In the end a mile is still a mile and more importantly a mile run is a mile not spent watching the world pass you from your couch.

Run on my friends.