five hundred twenty-eight thousand, nine hundred sixty-nine feet

Do you like to run? I kind of do. Sometimes I even feel like running and I'll hop on a tread mill and go for about 20 or 30 minutes which usually translates to maybe two miles. That's usually good enough for me. Then I'll go do other stuff. I mean, I like to workout...really do. My life would not be complete without it. It makes me feel good, makes my body feel balanced and strong. I pretty much want to be able to carry my own groceries and swim laps until the day I die.

That said, I have never really understood people who run marathlons. Maybe it's a matter of purpose. My purpose in working out is for health and functionality. That's what I want and that's what my workout program brings me. People who do long races must have some other purpose, like to accomplish something difficult, or enjoy a super endorphin high, or to need to buy new sneakers on a monthly basis, or maybe they are hooked on pain. Whatever it is, I don't get it, but I do have a lot of fun wondering about it.

For example, there is a guy I know who, this Saturday, is running a race that is 100 miles long! Yes, you read that correctly. And here I was oblivious enough to think that marathons were the extent of people's craziness. It's not. If you want more proof just google something. And to hear what distances people swim sometimes is truely insane. But anyway, back to this guy.

Saturday morning he is going to wake up and go running ALL DAY. It seriously takes about 24 hours. That is 538,969 feet on his own two paws. The most amazing thing, though, is that this is his third 100-mile race. What in the?! Evidently you just go as you can, eating along the way at refueling stations and sleeping wherever and whenever you need to. And he's done two already! He must be slightly insane. I'll tell you what, though, either the slight insanity or the endorphins from all that travel certainly keeps him chipper. He always seems super happy and energetic and in the end I guess it's his deal if he wants to do that. It's just so fascinating.

So, in all my pondering I couldn't help connect my yearning for American Gladiator's to his experience. Evidently there is a part of me that would love to workout and train like crazy to get insanely fit. Only I've never done it. I wonder why or if it matters. I always tend to blame it on having to work and this guy does work at a gym so I'm sure that makes it a little easier, but that can't be all it.

Maybe I'm really just that little bit of lazy enough to not want to workout that hard.

Maybe I'm afraid of something. I tend to think I'm scared of getting that fit, and then feeling pressured to keep it up for the rest of my life. For example, if I lost 15 pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle (remember, my aspiration would be more toward Gladiatorship than running anyday) would I feel gross going back to my current and perfectly normal as well as beautiful body fat percentage? Hm, I really don't know.

Or maybe I really don't care at all, but my exposure to people who do that sort of thing makes me think I should care about being an extreme athlete, and so make me wonder if I could or should bite the bullet and do it.

Maybe I like my current diet too much. I mean, I'm no porker, but I'm pretty sure I'd have to change some things to be really top notch, and (back to the lazy bit) I really don't think I want to have to think about my food any more than I already do.

Maybe I don't want to give up the time. As much as I like to workout, there are always a million other things I want to do as much...I wonder if that priority would change once I started to see what I could do? Hm, that's an interesting thought.

So anyway, it's just an interesting thing. Overall I think I'm just perfect as I am, but every now and then I just think it'd be really cool to be that girl at the gym who has the faintest shadow of a six-pack.