Things They Don't Tell You Part 1

You know how women shield each other from the truly ugly side of pregnancy and childbirth? I feel like the same thing happens with runners: there are definitely things that veterans don't share about their sport - and more specifically, marathon training and running - because sometimes it's probably just better for us newbies to not know.

There are, of course, the things that it seems everybody knows. Missing and/or black toenails, lack of social life, eating everything in sight, carb loading, etc.

Then there are those things that you never imagined. Thus far, I've observed the following:

1. You will start to pay attention to the color of your pee... and this becomes a relevant/normal topic of discussion with other runners.
2. The words "it's only eight miles" will come out of your mouth in reference to a training run. Then you will realize that what you just said is totally crazy - running 8 miles is still running eight miles and an accomplishment in and of itself. Try to remind yourself of that.
3. The slightest abnormal ache or pain in your lower extreminities will cause extreme anxiety and grouchiness. You will obsess over said ache or pain, immediately jumping to worst case scenarios, until it goes away. Same goes for the slightest feeling of a cold, stomach flu, or general illness.
4. The boost to your metabolism means you are hungry all the time (expected) and that you have insane/intense cravings (not expected). The other day I found myself eating peanut butter out of the jar. I used to hate peanut butter. Expect an entry further detailing my training-induced face stuffing in the near future.

I'm sure as I progress into the more intense part of training, I will discover lots more fun things that they never tell you about this crazy sport.

For the record, I have yet to get a wonky toenail or have one fall off, which is one of my biggest (and most irrational) fears about running. Don't ask me why - there are plenty of worse things that can happen to you, but for some reason, the thought of losing a toenail really freaks me out.