You know you’ve got the running bug when… Part III

I might have mentioned it before, maybe more than once? (see Part I and Part II)

I have the running bug.

It’s gone from a minor ailment, to a chronic condition and is now really quite serious. On top of all the previous symptoms, here are some more.

1. You read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. You start off horrified at the idea of running 10km every day. Then you think that sounds quite nice. Now you’re really jealous that some people have time for that, you’d really like to do the same.

2. Running every day isn’t a chore, or really a charity event, it’s more of a special treat with the reward at the end that your fitness is improved and when you scale it back to three times a week, you reap PBs all over the place.

Red January 2022 Review

3. Strava’s 100km a month isn’t a goal that you have to work at any more. 200km? Now that’s a challenge.

4. You follow more runners on Instagram than fellow bloggers or parenting folks.

5. You feel truly sad when you have to retire your trainers because the heel is too worn. They look fine to the uninitiated, but you know that persevering with them will lead to injury.

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6. A half marathon is a nice special event, not torture. You feel really blissful in the midst of that really long run, lost in the distance and the quiet.

7. You have to really work very hard indeed not to mention running to your non-runner friends.

8. When you can’t run, you discover that your inspiration for blog posts mainly pops out when you’re running. So you develop no-running-induced writer’s block. It’s hell.

9. You have an evil cold of doom and sensibly don’t run for two weeks. When you finally feel better there’s a third massive storm raging, but you don’t care, you get out there anyway.

10. The kit situation has got out of hand. Just the four pairs of shoes? And a watch who’s primary purpose is measuring distance and pace rather than telling the time? Bone conduction headphones? More buffs than you can count? Sealskinz socks? Oopsy.

11. You always thought that people who buy anything for the label were wankers. You’re now a running wanker with all manner of branded kit.

Here we see Badass Mother Runners leggings and This Mum Runs top….. I’m very ashamed of myself but also very proud of my gorgeous running shiny things.

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Do you suffer a similar affliction or addiction in the name of a hobby?