Talking About Running

Everyone knows that I like to talk about running. I can't help it. To be honest, my life is thankfully uneventful most of the time, so that leaves my hobby as pretty much the only thing to talk about that doesn't involve cleaning or kids. So, what am I talking about when I talk about running? Here is something I found over at Half-Fast that I think is pretty interesting. At http://www.wordle.net/, you can input your blog address or other web page. Wordle will then do a word count and create a piece of art with the posts. The words used the most are bigger and there are different fonts and color schemes to choose from. Here is another one that I created from this blog:

Once the cloud is created, use of it is free for any purpose as long as wordle.net is credited. I was so happy with my result that I clipped the cloud above, went to Vistaprint.com and ordered some pads of paper and pens with the artwork on it. I was surprised how cheap it was. My husband thinks it's hilarious that I've created marketing materials for my blog, as if I were actually making money off this thing.

Do all runners talk about the same things? A book that explores talk about running is "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami. Murakami usually writes surreal fiction, but here he writes about running and how it effects his writing and life. At times the book is slow moving, but I was surprised how his thoughts about running mirror my own. He writes about becoming a runner, and not just someone who runs occasionally for exercise. Murakami has run marathons and ultras and he notices the effects of aging on his performance and attitude. He writes about the stamina required to write for extended periods of time and he credits running with conditioning his mind and body for the task. The realization that a male writer from Japan, who in many ways couldn't be more different than me, has similar thoughts as me was comforting. It made me feel like I speak the same language as a larger community.

I'll let you know how my blog shwag turns out when I get it in a few days. I've been feeling good and running consistently, albeit slowly, the last couple of weeks. Hopefully there will be lots of running to talk about in my future.