What Is A Runner?

I look at a lot of blogs and most of my current blogs I read are all about running and it makes me wonder if I am indeed a runner, and what a runner actually is.

I have decided on one simple criteria.

If you move faster than you walk, you are a runner.

I guess, theoretically, you could break it down to joggers/sprinters/runners if you feel like it. But to me, its all the same at this stage in the game.

I am a sprinter, and always have been. Sprinting was the one thing I was good at in school PE class. I sucked at running the mile though, finishing in just under 14 minutes (an F for that event, in case you were wondering.)

I was good at short bursts of all out running as fast as I could, but beyond 10-15 seconds I was spent.

I wonder if I would ever be a real runner and after a few lousy runs the last couple of days my self esteem has been shot.

I do wonder if I had 'beginner's luck' or if I was just not feeling it the last couple of days. I started to question if I could ever even run on the treadmill (I gave it a go and it was a fail. I didn't fall off or anything but I had a super hard time finding a pace that let me jog/run consistently)


So I thought about it some yesterday while I was feeling a little blue and I decided that I am still new to this and my confidence is wavering precariously between being awesome and feeling like a failure, it's so new I'm fragile.

And then I decided to suck it up. As long as I am not suffering physical effects from running (my ankle hurting, for example, or my knee giving out) I will keep running on the elliptical. If I never make it past the elliptical to the treadmill to the road... that's alright.

It doesn't matter to my body what I do to run. It thinks it's doing the same work anyway. It gets my heart rate up, it tones muscles, and it leaves me feeling good about myself... even on the bad days.

So, yeah. I think I can call myself a runner.