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Thursday Thoughts - Why Hate on Runners?

This might be a complete and total ramble, so feel free to skip unless you're bored ;-)

Recently I've been noticing a lot of pins all about the hatred of running. Honestly, it really ticks me off. No one is saying you have to run, that you have to love it. I've never dismissed someone because they didn't run, and I don't bash workouts I don't care for.

So it got me to thinking, why is it that if someone doesn't like to run, they feel like they must go out of their way to proclaim it to the wold? To call all of us runners crazy, nuts, insane, etc.? To swear up and down how much it sucks, how much they hate it.

It flies all over me when someone asks me about my workouts. I say I run and the first words are, "Oh god, I HATE to run." "Running just sucks." Um. Ok. Well, I don't really like just walking but I don't get all worked up about it. I don't get all fanatical if you tell me you're a swimmer and I'm not.

So why all of this:

Now, I do realize runners are a passionate lot. If you ask us about running, and really want to hear, we'll gladly blather on for hours about it. But, that's what you do when you're passionate about something.

If someone asks me why I run, and I can tell they aren't really into running, then I just give a cursory reason like, "It's my 'me' time, it's how I de-stress and stay sane." Then I move along. I know there's no trying to convince a hater. They don't seem to want to understand.

But I guess it feels like a personal stab, especially when that person knows how I feel about running. It's like they're openly bashing something I love. Like telling me my dogs are ugly or something. Does that make sense? It'd be like someone railing against women lifting weights (which my doctor sort of did, whole other story), or when people like to bash vegetarianism even. I think you get the point.

There are always haters of course, but I've had more people opine about their hatred of running than anything else. And of course this is a rhetorical question, "Why?"

What makes it ok to bash something someone else enjoys. Especially when it's something that's healthy, that's good for them, that makes them happy, releases stress...unless, of course, you are concerned about that person over-doing it maybe.

Thoughts? How do you react when friends, family, even strangers declare their hatred for running?


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