12 mad things all long distance runners experience when training for a long distance running event –

1) Social life! What’s that?
2) We start seeing life from a distance, a “long” distance. Everything else suddenly seems so trivial.
3) Boy! Can we eat! People regret inviting us over.
4) We whine and crib about black toenails but secretly want others to ask us how we got them.
5) If we find anything to talk about apart from running it seems superficial.
6) The house is messy. Well…isn’t that how a house lived in supposed to be? Running clothes are always well stacked.
7) We dream of reaching the finish line all the time.
8) We secretly fear – “If I have to, where will I dump my load?” Ughh, Portaloos!
9) We suddenly find ourselves connecting with (otherwise disconnected) distance runners on FB.
10) We often go back and read (portions of) “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” and “Born to Run”.
11) We pray and hope that our non-runner friends will somehow get it.
12) Every new song we hear is evaluated on the good-run-song-or-not scale.

If you can think of more quirks, then feel free to add it to the comment box and I would edit the list 🙂

“If you want to run,  run a mile.  If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an Ultra.” – Dean Karnazes (American ultra runner, who has run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days).