I Want to Run Farther

The title of today's post plagued me a little during my last long run. Here's why. Last week in one of my classes we were looking for images in magazines that were representative of motor development. While flipping through these magazines I found a small picture about 2 in wide and 3 in. tall that has mostly a water background and a small sillhouette at the right corner of the picture of a person running. The caption just above the sand reads, "I want to run further." 

It sounds inspirational, right? And it was - don't get me wrong. I put the clipping into the cover of my binder where my training program was. But as I was hitting mile six and trying to pull myself out of a bit of a mental slump, I realize something. It's grammatically incorrect! You don't run further, you run farther. It's a matter of distance, not depth. I know, I know, I'm a loser right. But I spent a good 15 minutes trying to remember whether the clipping said "further" or "farther" and whether it should consequently be mocked. (It should!) Nevertheless, I still have the clipping in my binder. 

Running farther...I've now down 2 of my 6 big runs. It's odd what happens to you over a period of 3 hours or so. I started off the run feeling pretty crummy. I had been waking up in the middle of the night thinking it was Saturday, not Friday, and I was a bit discouraged to find out that it was indeed Friday. A lot of small things hadn't gone my way in the prior 36 hours and a 16 miles run just didn't feel like it was the best way to improve my mood. Go figure - I was wrong. 

Soon after the further/farther debate, the irksome things of the first few miles (my annoying snowspikes/my skimask/my new sports drink flavor) seemed not too important at all. The final 10 miles sorta just flew by. The sun started peaking out of the clouds and by the last 4 miles, it was almost a clear sky. My body went from fatigued and tense to relaxed and strong. For the second week in a row, my strongest miles were my last miles. I know I'm a Sport Psychology student, so I am supposed to say this - but seriously - exercise makes you feel better. Even exercise that takes over 3 hours (even if I could watch 2 movies during that time...thank you, Katie! :-p). The thing is...after training for this long, I don't know what else to do, but to want to run father.  

And for now, 48 days until the Shamrock Marathon...