Feeling Like a Runner

My high school math teacher (I had several, but I really only remember the one who I constantly clashed with) was a runner and one of his favorite quotations to our track-heavy math class was something along the lines of, "I love running in the rain because I know that my competition isn't." In the many years since I first hung up my Brooks shoes, running in the rain became my litmus test for knowing whether I was a runner again. Every other year, I'd start running again and invariably the first inclement day would arrive, I'd skip my run, and that would be the end of it.

Last Friday and today, I found myself heading out into the rain to run because I had a run scheduled and didn't want to miss it. And now, two months after first lacing up my Brooks shoes, I finally feel like a runner. It's one of those accomplishments in life where you don't have a medal (or anything really to remember it by) but somehow you know it'll stick in your memory.