Running and Chewing Gum...

10 miles - Salem Lakes

.....at the same time. Probably not the best idea. Running and talking at the same time?

Brilliant.

Today I partook in a run organized by me but dreamed up by my friend Genisis, to gather up a group of people for a run around the Salem Lake paired with brunch at a local haunt called Mary's of Course. 8 people signed up, and even though it snowed yesterday and my ankle was talking back a little bit (sassy ankle), I decided to go.

SO GLAD I did. The wonderful thing about running with people is that it not only creates a lovely diversion, it creates bonding experiences. The activity shared amongst participants has already been established: running. And moving your feet automatically moves your brain, so the chit chat flows much faster than say, standing around noshing on chips at a party.

Try it. Assemble a group of people and have them all stand around trying to "get to know" one another. Awkward.

Take that same group of people, and have them all DO something together, and awkwardness lifts. I'm not talking about one of those team building ropes courses, I'm talking about all building birdhouses, or all painting pots.

Or all running.

My ten miles went off without a hitch. Physically this means the marathon is within my grasp. But it was more than the physical, it was the mental.

When you are running, the first thing that goes is brain power. Why? Because while your muscles can work on sugar, fat, and whatever else happens to be lying around the body, your brain is much pickier: Glycogen or bust. That bust creates a running monologue of "You can't do this, stop running, this isn't fun."

In the wild, this mechanism was meant to prevent us from running past our ability to safely get home to the tribe. It was a low fuel light.

When you're running with people, the chances of succumbing to this monologue decrease significantly. Running with people checks your pace, as it takes air to talk. Running with people pushes you past your old distance walls, as it's easy to let the group momentum overtake you. Running with people cures a whole host of challenges.

In fact, I didn't even start thinking of myself as a runner until I went out with my amazing group of gentlemen running friends, all of whom told me that I was a runner and encouraged me to go past my once thought to be set in stone limits.

Which is not to say that running solo doesn't have its merits. It can be centering, it can allow you to focus on increasing pace or honing your mental concentration, it can create its own sense of empowerment and freedom.

But running with people, for the most part, is just more fun.

Period.

Especially when it's paired with a lovely post run pig out involving breakfast burritos and french toast.