Serious Running Blog

“Mr. Barber in the building.  Swagger on a hundred, thousand, trillion….My swag is like Mick Jagger, every time I breathe on the track I asthma attack it.”  That’s a great example of running with swag.  I have asthma, but every time I’m running on the track I attack it.  I’ve attacked my asthma through exercise so much over the years that it is now almost non-existent.  New studies have shown that consistent exercise can reduce asthma.  But this isn’t about asthma, it’s about running with swag.

On Saturday I went to a Major League baseball game in which we started Barber-quing at 1 pm.  The game started at 4 pm and I knew it was going to be a long day in the sun with only adult beverages to quench my thirst.  It was going to be difficult to enjoy this day to its fullest and wake up at 6:00 am for a 10 mile trail run on a course that I had never run before and was still under development.  I only had one choice, put my swag on and enjoy the day.  I even had to swag my way into the private club at the stadium to get some AC.  I didn’t need to be in the hot sun the day before this run!  I got home at about 8:30 pm from the baseball game and got a message from a friend.  She had some friends she wanted me to meet and they were out close to my house.  So what did I do?  Ate some ramen noodles and fell asleep until about midnight.  But I woke up, put some more swag on and headed out the door to meet her and her friends.  I got home at about 330 am.  Only 2.5 hours until I was going to have to get up for the run.  Instead of going to sleep I stayed awake.  I had some work to do so I knocked it out.

I left the house at 6 am to do a group test run for the upcoming Frogtown Trail Challenge.  I didn’t know who the other runners in the group were going to be or what the course was going to be like, so I had to put my swag on and be confident without this information.  Swag is all about confidence.  Confidence that you can do anything, given any situation.  However, driving up to do the trail run I began thinking to myself, ‘I’ve only slept 3 hours, have been de-hydrating all day and evening, I have no idea how I’m going to perform on this trail run.’  But as I got closer to my destination I began to think about my swag.  I don’t have to be 100% physically to perform 100% mentally and with confidence.  I decided to put my swag on as soon as I stepped out of the car.  When I met the group I didn’t bring up the fact that I had barely slept and had been out socializing the night before.  I just showed up with the confidence that I was ready to run.  We stayed in a group for the first half of the run and then as the group spread out a bit I ran with one other runner at the front.  I ran with confidence at the beginning, running, socializing with the group, enjoying the day and the course; then as I felt better I ran faster.  I had confidence that I could do the run at any speed I chose.  Confidence that I was a trail runner, just like everyone else whether I was running in the back of the pack or leading it…I just happend to choose leading it.

It was a beautiful day out, the course was really fun and it was a great group of people to run with.  I was very glad I had decided to put my swag on and make it to the run.  There were creek crossings, creek running, steep inclines, gradual declines, roots, rocks, tall grass, briers, ticks; anything you could ever want in a trail run.  It was a great course with a lot of technical and differing terrain which kept you focused.  It was fun testing out this route and meeting some great people.  And I owe it all to my running with swag.  So next time you don’t think you can hang with a group run or don’t think you are going to perform well in a race, sawg like you are ready to run and you will perform however you want to perform.  You’re the swaggiest!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 7:56 am and is filed under Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.