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20 Ways You Know You’re A Proper Runner…

John Turner

We love it when someone tells us they are pulling together a list, this one hits a lot of marks! Curated with thought, humour and honesty John T is bound to get you chuckling or nodding in mutual understanding to what he believes makes you a ‘proper’ runner, enjoy!

 

You know your a runner if…

 

1. There are things in your washing which no-one else but you will touch.

 

2. You look at a section of road or bridleway and think to yourself “That’ll go!”

 

3. Certain songs will always be the headsong for a particular run, and whenever, wherever you hear them you are transported back, trance-like, to that day when…

 

4. You have a drawer full of tech shirts with place names, logos, dates… They go with the box of medals. And the collection of crumpled race-numbers.

 

5. You have a love-hate relationship with a foam roller

 

6. Driving along the road you check out every runner you see: their kit, their form, their pace…

 

7. You see a line in the tarmac and have to run along it.

 

8. Meals are a case of whatever goes with your carbs.

 

9. You still *need* one more pair of trainers (especially if there’s a bargain).

 

10. You have a collection of race photos with “Copyright” and “Proof only” stamped across them because you refuse to be mugged for the clean image (or, you don’t think you look as cool and athletic as it seemed in your head at the time).

 

11. When an evening with friends or a family event is being arranged, you silently calculate what runs will have to be rescheduled to maintain your mileage and activity levels.

 

12. Some places are forever associated with special, lifetime-memory runs (Yosemite National Park, Derwent Water round, Pollenca to Formentor, cliffs of Malta… or insert yours here).

 

13. You are not put off by the weather. In fact, the worse it is the more it reinforces your status as an athlete. And if there is fresh snow…

 

14. If you don’t ache a little when you get up in the morning something simply isn’t right.

 

15. You notice the colour of your pee and resolve to re-hydrate.

 

16. When you travel with work you take your kit and get up extra-early to try out the canal-path or nearby park you’ve spotted.

 

17. Your calendar isn’t the traditional “Day/Month” but “n-weeks until that race”.

 

18. When a family holiday is being booked, you are thinking about where you can run to.

 

19. When you get new shoes they have a handover from the old ones. And the first thing you do is go find some mud to make them respectable.

 

20. If someone uses the “J-word” (as in “You’re a bit of a jogger, aren’t you?” or “How was your jog?”) you smile politely while masking your fury as you struggle with the urge to punch them.

 

Curated your own list and there’s one missing from the above? Leave us a comment!

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