Ok, before you roll your eyes and yawn, read on and let me repeat and explain. Running… is… fun. Not fun in the loud partying with your friends’ kind of way. No, the fun of running comes quietly, almost slyly. It sneaks up on you when you least expect it.  It comes on its own terms.  It can’t be manufactured.  It must come to you. And it will, if you’re patient.
Running IS fun. It’s so simple. And so easy to forget.
My latest reminder came Wednesday afternoon when I went out with some of my friends for a run.  We often run together as they are training for a marathon and I am training for a half marathon.  They were planning to run 7 miles that night, and I was going to run 5. As we started our run, I was feeling a little sluggish. I just wanted to get it over with so I could go home, take a shower and put on my PJ’s.  I was feeling OK  a couple miles in, moving along at a even pace like normal.  And as I kept running I began to feel better and better, and before I knew it I had passed my turn around point.  Looks like I will be running the whole 7 miles with my friends, I thought. Then I smiled. I think I actually laughed out loud, a little bit.  That’s when it hit me: Hey, this is fun.
Here’s the thing: the fun had nothing to do with how fast I was running or how slow. The fun was merely in the consistency, and in knowing that I’ve managed somehow to train my body to “know” what a 7 mile run feels like and then to be able to run it and know it won’t kill me.  All I know is that on that day, out on the trail running with my friends, a feeling washed over me that could only be described as “fun.”
A little nerdy? Sure. But I think you know what I am getting at. You don’t always have to run your fastest time, or be the first to cross the finish line to have fun and ejoy it. The fun comes when you least expect it, like out on a  7 mile  run that you didn’t even want to go on!

-Amanda Reichert, Health Educator II