I found this article recently, For Beginning Runners, Advice Can Be a Hurdle, and I thought it tied in nicely with my post, But what if I hate running?

I am inclined to agree with the NY Times article (wow — I don’t say that very often), except for the title.  I think people allow complicated advice to become a hurdle, when all along the real obstacle has been only this– running is difficult.  It takes your body longer to adapt to it than you would like, especially if you begin as slowly and carefully as you should.

Beginners want advice for this very reason: it is difficult, and they wish it weren’t.  I don’t blame them at all.  There is good advice to be had, but nothing will help as much as just getting out there.  Go for a run, however short, however slow.  Wait a day, then go for another.  Do it over and over again, even if it’s difficult.  Stop and walk if it hurts, but don’t give up.  It will get easier.

A reader asked me this, and ever since, I’ve been trying to decide how to answer.  Initially, I thought, “Well, don’t run.  No one says you have to.”  But then I thought maybe this person really wishes she liked running because it’s such efficient and inexpensive exercise, and it’s so much nicer if you happen to also enjoy it.  So simply saying, “Well, just don’t do it then,” is kind of unhelpful.  Also, it’s not what I think she should do.

I think running, for those who don’t naturally love it, is an acquired taste worth acquiring.  There are acquired tastes I wouldn’t encourage anyone to develop (coffee, beer).  I say, if you’re so fortunate as to dislike those things, then by all means, just be grateful.  Those things aren’t good for you anyway.  But with running, I’d say, try to make yourself like it.

It sounds terrible, but it can absolutely be done.  I have heard so many runners say, “I always hated running, until…” or “I was never athletic, but then…”  Many people begin running because something other than a love of running makes them do it.  They want to lose weight, they’re stressed out, they’re having trouble sleeping (indeed — my husband began running in part because he could never sleep after a long day sitting at his desk).

Yes, it is awful at first.  You’ll hear runners say, “Oh, at first, I couldn’t run even half a mile, and after the first time, I swore I’d never do it again.”  This awfulness sometimes lasts several months.  But those who push through often end up loving running for its own sake.

There are many good things that we don’t naturally like.  A natural disinclination to run should be thoroughly tested and tried, at least by anyone who wishes she liked to run.  You can enjoy running, but you have to push through your hatred first.  If, on the other hand, you run three times a week for, oh, five or six months, and you still hate it, and all its benefits are not enough to keep you going, well, I think maybe you’d better join a gym so you can do something more interesting.  But I think you will find that, even if you still don’t enjoy it, you’ll love how much better you feel, and that might be incentive enough.

The New York City Marathon was on Sunday.  You can read about the men’s race, the women’s race, and the U.S. elite runners. This is just terribly exciting to me.  Running events are the only sporting events I care about, and I care about them more than I can explain.  The only time I miss having regular television is during a big-city marathon.  Oh, it’ll be rough during the summer Olympics.  I could watch people running for hours and hours and not get bored.  But football?  My goodness.  What a lot of nonsense.

So, because I couldn’t get the streaming video to work on our computer, I spent large portions of Sunday and Monday reading any breaking news I could find, refreshing the Flotrack homepage, desperate for new videos, and even (so strange for me) reading tweets.  Apparently, the elites cross the finish line, get a hug, then pull out their fancy-pants phones and tweet something.  So much the better for me.

A year or so ago, I read A Race Like No Other, which is all about the New York City Marathon.  I found this absolutely gripping.  There are not many places I feel I need to see, but I have always wanted to visit New York City, and I think the best way to really see it would be to run the marathon.

When I visit a place, I don’t really want to “do” anything there; I just want to walk around, look up at the buildings, and imagine what it’s like to live there.  I want to see the people and get a cup of coffee from a coffee shop I’ve never been to, and then I’m all set.  So if Th. took me to New York City, all I’d want to do is walk around, gape up at the buildings, and feel overwhelmed.  That’s it.  What better way to do this, and make sure I’d seen the entire city, than to run the marathon?  Plus, it’s pretty difficult to convince someone to take you all the way to New York City for a cup of coffee and a leisurely walk.

What about you?  How do you prefer to see the sights?