Running For Fun? What's That?

Running For Fun?  What’s That?

            I guess I am going to have to find out.  After running, and now recovering from, my first marathon I have been of course looking toward the future.  I immediately began looking for the ‘next race.’  I had tentatively scheduled a Thanksgiving Day race and a New Year’s Day race, a 5K and 5-miler respectively.  Before I actually plopped down the money though I began to wonder if I wanted to get right back into training.  I didn’t.

            From nearly the beginning of my running life I’ve been training for races, 14 in 17 months to be exact.  Granted, not all are marathons or half marathons, but you run differently when you have a time or a pace in mind.  It’s different when you just point your feet and go for the hell of it.  Or so I have heard.

            Turns out that I have really never run just for fun.  I was looking back over time trying to figure out when I had an extended period of just running because I want to, not because I have to.  I could not find one.  Sure, I have had periods where I wasn’t training per se, but it was because I was doing runs to recover from some sort of injury.

            It was a little different I must admit to step on a treadmill (give me a break we turned the clocks back and it’s dark right after I get out of work) and just go.  There was no ‘I need to run sprints,’ no ‘I have to hit 10+ miles.’ No, it was just running at a comfortable speed for a comfortable time.  When I was done I felt great.

            I think every runner at some point reaches the tipping point.  It’s like going back to basics to rediscover why exactly you started running at all.  After getting severely burned out during my 5 months of marathon training a return to the basics of running was just what I needed.  As of right now I plan on running for fun until the end of 2012.  January 1^st will see me start training for my 2^nd Hyannis Half Marathon in late-February.  Until then I will be running because I want to.  Granted I will do long runs, sprints, hills, but only when I want and for how long I want to.  Running for fun?  Wow, what a concept.

            How about you?  Have any of you gotten so into training and races that you’ve forgotten about the basic joys of running?  Have you ever taken such a break where you run only when you want to?  If so, how long did it last before the call of competition became too much to ignore?  Maybe I’ll last until New Year’s, maybe I won’t, who knows…