what do you think?

Over the years of my running, many people have asked me, "What do you think about when you're running?" The people who ask me and other runners this question, are not runners. They first ask why we run so much, and then ask what we think about when we're running. Truth is, it's different for every runner....what we think about that is.

my thinking face...

For me personally, what I think about on my runs depends on several things. But I'm going to make this short and simple. I think about my job....a lot. Mainly because I hate my job my bosses. They really like to make my life and the lives of my co-workers aweful because they expect TOO MUCH of us. I'm not going to go into any more detail, but just know that it's aweful. I like to make up different scenarios sometimes. For example, I saw a guy climbing off a roof onto a ladder and it looked really unsafe, so I made up a scenario about what I would do if I saw him fall off. I think about the workout I'm doing. If it's a speed workout, I think about changing it and making it easier. Then I have to tell myself that I'm going to stick to the workout I had originally planned. If I see other people running, I'll try to catch up to them and pass them. It's kind of like a mini-race except the other person doesn't know we're racing. Sometimes, I don't think anything, and I just zone out.

I think about safety A LOT especially since I do most of my runs by my lonesome. I don't like running by myself in the dark, and I avoid it as much as I can. If I do run in the dark, I have a reflective vest that I wear. I always try to let people know when I'm going to be running. I never run with music. When I run outside, I like to be able to hear if something is coming toward me whether it be a car, human, or animal. Running in NC, most of my runs are on country roads where there is no sidewalk, so it's important to me to be able to hear when a vehicle is coming.

I always try to wear my Road ID whenever I run because I never carry my cell phone or anything on me when I run. If you don't know what a Road ID is, it's an item that has emergency information in case you get hurt. Mine is a bracelet, but there are other ones like one you have put on your shoe or an anklet. Mine has my name, where I'm from, my birth year, 3 people with phone #s to contact, and a short mantra.

What do you think about when you run?