Running Sucks. Doesn’t that feel good to say? There’s something satisfying and cathartic in saying it. Let’s face it, even though we’re “Runners” and we know we’ll always be back, sometimes it just feels good to say “Eff this”. I mean seriously – it’s often hard work and a huge slog. Especially now if you’re training for a marathon through temperatures which are alternating between absolutely suckingly freezing, generally cold and dark, and cold wet rain.

Here’s the catch though, and as runners we all know this. Complaining doesn’t get you off the hook. You still need running for all it gives you and all that you get out of it. Your non-running friends will say, “I told you it sucks! If you hate it so much why do you do it?” And you won’t really have an answer. So you know you can only complain in certain circles; amongst runners who know and agree and say, “Ya, this is brutal. Ok, let’s go”.

There are times, maybe during a particularly cold and nasty run, or in the middle of a long, hard, unrelenting training block, or after a string of poor performances, or usually after a marathon, when you actually do say “I’m done. I do not need to do this to myself”. And maybe you actually do need to stop and take a break. I’ve been there. More than once which is how I know it’s not a permanent condition.

My last episode was in the middle of a race which I was using as a training run. I had been getting deeper and deeper into a state of fatigue and over-training by trying to “keep my fitness up” after training for and racing a marathon. I was in a good state of denial though. The weather was perfect for running (it was spring) and all my friends were running. Why would I take time off? I went through weeks of up and down performances and training sessions just getting more and more fatigued and deeper and deeper into a hole. Then in the middle of the race I just said it. “Eff this. I’m done” and stopped dead.

That was about eight months ago. I’m happy to say that I don’t currently hate running. In fact, I’m starting to kind of really love it again. I knew I would. I love so much about running and wouldn’t want to live without it but at the same time, it feels so good sometimes to just say “Running Sucks”. So go ahead and say it. Then get your butt out for a run.