Hardcore HalfWits!

Jeremy Peck emailed this to me tonight.......

Today's run started out kind of like Barry's runs did from his post a couple weeks back. I wasn't quite with it and the wind was really affecting me. It seemed like I was having a hard time finding my groove. I kept trying to back off to keep my heart rate where it should be for my long runs. As a result of this I found myself near the back of the pack running with some people I'd never met before. I ended up sticking with them through the park. I probably could have gone on ahead a little faster, but If I had I would have missed out on an enjoyable run with some new people and an interesting encounter at FitClub the second time past.

I was standing in the entry way of FitClub staying warm as I ate my GU. A woman came in carrying her toddler and asked what all the people were doing running. I first said “its every weekend,” as if that would explain it. She responded by saying “They must be hardcore.” My response to that was I guess an attempt to explain it better, “It's half-marathon training.” To which she responded “You guys are hardcore.”

At first I thought that she just didn't understand, because I've never thought of myself as hardcore at anything, let alone running. But after I let it stew a bit, I changed my mind. We call ourselves “Halfwits.” We run in any weather (rain, wind, snow, heat, ok, no heat yet this year.) We go out and push ourselves to new distances and speeds every weekend over all kinds of terrain (hills, flats, streets, trails). If you look up hardcore in some online dictionaries you'll get a wide variety of definitions. I browsed through a site called the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/) and found several, most of which have to do with either porn or music. There are a few that apply to us a little better, like “Intense, Relentless.” and “Extreme, brutal.” I found one very interesting definition:

“Hardcore is a room filled with people who just like you got picked on in school and in life, and in wanting something more than the monotony that is life.“

Ok, maybe we didn't get picked on in school, and my life certainly isn't monotonous, but maybe we are all “wanting something more.” I know there are plenty of people who have run for years that wouldn't even dream of running in the conditions we have. I also know that there are plenty of people for whom a 4 mile run every day is good enough for them. I also know that there are people right here in Springfield who like to every so often run for 8 hours straight. Maybe there are levels of hardcore-ness, or maybe there are different ways to express our hardcore-ness. I think that all of us that have made it this far deserve to think of themselves as hardcore simply because we've gone out and made it through intense, extreme, and brutal conditions.

Maybe you didn't make it every week, or maybe you sat out during some of the worst weather, but you've made it this far so I'm calling you hardcore. One of the persons I met today hadn't made it for a couple of the last runs and had only gone 7 miles before today. She had been running, but hadn't gone past that distance. Today she made herself get out of bed and with the help of a good group made it the whole 12 miles. She may be paying for it later today and this week, but I think that's hardcore.

When you think about it, that's the last part of a marathon, the hardest part. That extra 5-6 miles that you don't ever cover in training runs.

So... think about that as you cruise into the homestretch of training for your first half-marathon. Call yourself a hardcore runner with pride. Call yourself a Halfwit!