I Think I'm Turning A Corner... 3/17

in my running. They call it being "bitten by the bug." I've often wondered, does it sting? Will it swell? Is it like the pestering sand gnats in Savannah that you can barely see with the naked eye but evoke more rageful tendencies than an angry drunk on st. patricks day after his dog died, wife left him, he was laid off at work, and someone spilled his beer? Or is it more like a misquito bite, promptly smacked, itches for a few minutes, but moments later forgotten?

Recently I've come to recognize the subtle crossing over from curious wannabe onlooker to delirious victim. I'm not even quite sure when it happened, or what exactly the culprit was, but I can attest to the undeniable symptoms. Consider this your warning label:

You might be bitten by the running bug if:
you experience feverish hullucinations of competing in every race from boston to berlin before heaven calls you home
you're labeled as "the runner" amongst your social circles (i.e. myspace, facebook, twitter, and in rarer incidences: real life)
you're daily meals are planned out according to the time, distance, and intensity of your runs, you own more "tech gear" than any other clothing, your idea of the perfect date includes hill sprints and a chilled bottle of gatorade
important life milestones such as career goals, your wedding, when to start trying for a baby, etc. are altered to fit around your race schedule.
your friends begin to avoid you for fear of your droning on and on about the article you read in Runner's World or what your most recent splits were. You, however, barely notice, because you've sought solice amongst kindred spirits and have taken to blogging about running whenever you're not out actually doing it

seriously, though, that really has nothing to do with it. sometimes the obsessive compulsions listed above that come with being an "enthusiastic" runner are nothing more than hypochondriatic symptoms that come within the infected community.

for me, when i stopped having to argumentatively convince myself to lace up and head out for a run, and instead have found it to be a natural daily occurance that doesn't require any coersing whatsoever, i realized i had indeed become "one of them."