Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit
Every weekend, countless men and women rise well before a reasonable hour, apply the Body Glide and lace up the running shoes, and set out on their own crusades to conquer double-digit miles, either in the name of event training or just plain lunacy.
When I’m in the middle of a long run, however, MY run is obviously the most important and impressive one going on out there. Especially if my course takes me through a busy area, I’ve got a giant green neon sign above my head announcing how far I’ve come and how far I’m going. I wipe the sweat from my face as I pass latte-sipping tourists wiping croissant flakes from their lips in downtown Sausalito, and I feel a special kind of hubris beating in my chest: It’s pride, mixed with a little jealousy and craving for delicious breakfast food, but mostly pride. Everyone knows that I’m on my twelve-miler and how freakin’ incredible that is, even if I look like dying crap. Dog-walkers, strolling lovers, bikers and other runners gaze on with amazement, oohing and aahing, as I charge by on my mission toward the finish line. ”There she goes,” they whisper, the way they do for Dean.
Around the same time my running super star fantasy begins to fade, my running brain, a.k.a. runny brain, starts to kick into full gear. Basic, rote cognitive functions go out the window, speech slurs, and the legs sorta do their own thing. In other words, whatever’s between my ears starts to get mushy. It hasn’t happened yet, but I won’t be surprised if I start talking like Runny Babbit next time. I’m just glad when I can het gome, shake a tower, and feet some ood.
There’s an article in this month’s Runner’s World about how it’s the brain that controls pace more so than the legs. Training your mind to deal with Runny Brain Syndrome can be just as critical as training the heart and the muscles to deal with physical fatigue. If anyone knows any mental tricks to keep my illusions of athletic grandeur going strong into the big miles, cuz it really does help with motivation, lemme know.
Way to bust out the AP English vocabulary– hubris! Nice! I think I remember learning that along with “Hamartia” when we were reading Homer’s Odyssey.
I say skip the hippie crap about focusing on feeling peaceful and balanced, blah, blah….
Here’s my advice (and this is where I sound like a super-dork)… If you run with an i-pod and are prone to fantasizing, as I am, you should picture yourself as a the lead singer in the bad of whatever song you are listening to. Pretend that your run is part of the song’s music video and in your mind, you can flash between giving rock-star performance and running the streets.
If that doesn’t work, or if you run without music, perhaps you can be motivated by food: the Runny Rabbit is the most famous dish of Wales: basically melted cheese on toast. Mmmmm… carbs and cheese… you better keep running and burn some more calories.
Liz, you expressed my thought perfectly! Runny Brain is in fact a real condition. I sometime even suffer flashbacks of Runny Brain when I’m not running!
Reep kunning!!!