The Next Generation of Nutters

The wind is blowing from the west at 28km/h with gusts of 37km/hour.  It's already down to 4 degrees and dropping fast. 

And I have to run in an hour. 

Actually no, that's not true.  I don't have to run.  I want to run. 

Verrrry different.

There are no training schedules telling me what to do.  No pressure to fit the runs in. I'm just feeling the urge to go for a run.  Wizard of Oz winds be damned: I'm heading out after work for a wee trot down the local streets.

Which begs a few questions... 

What do you call a runner who heads out in nasty weather because they are training and need to get their run in? 

Dedicated?

What do you call a runner who heads out in nasty weather with absolutely no excuse other than they feel like going for a run?

A nutter?

It's pretty easy to look at anyone who has a lifestyle different from our own and make some snap judgements.  But the choices we make make sense to us.  So, I won't make fun of you for going home and staying inside tonight if you don't make fun of me for going for a run in a windstorm.

Deal?

By the way, I'm not the only nutter out there. The new Beginner Running Clinic starts tonight at Runners' Edge.  People all over Niagara are eyeing the trees blowing in the wind and wondering if they really want to go out in the cold, windy night to learn how to run.  When 6:45pm rolls around there will be a huge group of them out there ready to take their first running steps.  They will be cold, windblown and very nervous.  They won't think that they have what it takes to be a runner.

When they look back on tonight, 12 weeks from now, they won't believe what they were able to accomplish.  They will have gone from struggling through five minutes of running to polishing off 5k. And they will laugh at the wind, and the rain and whatever else the Running Gods throw their way.  Because they will be runners!

How cool is that?