16 Things Every Runner Knows is True

1. Waking up early enough to run before work to beat the heat is essential. Otherwise if you tan like me you look like a long lost Cosby sibling by July.

2. Not everyone likes to race, I love to race but there’s only one way to find out if you’re the kind of person who likes running races: sign up for one.

3. The smallest blister can ruin your whole run.

4. Colorful shoes don’t actually make you faster — but they sure as feel like they do.

5. You’re only going to want to talk about running. Better find runner friends before everyone else hates you.

6. Runger is real. Runger is vicious. Sometimes the only way to survive is to give in.

7. If you’re doing this to be model thin, you’re never going to get there. Doing this for muscles, however, is a nice side effect.

8. Nobody else cares how fast or slow you’re going.

9. Even if you’ve been running for years, every once in a while there’s just going to be a run that blows.

10. If you take a few weeks or even a few months off, getting back in the groove of things is going to feel like the toughest thing you've ever done. 

11. Winter running is possible. 

12. Where all the public restrooms are in any given vicinity. Someone can say let's run in this part of the city and I have to figure out where all the bathrooms are. 

13. How to deal with black toenails, muscle cramps, shin splints, thigh chafe, and everything else in between.

14. The magic union that is finding the right shoe for you — and the utter betrayal you feel when the manufacturer either discontinues it or changes its design.

15. How strangely, the fitter you get, the harder it is to find jeans that fit right. My legs get small and I can only find jeans in teenage stores.

16. And often, the hardest part of a run is lacing up and getting out of the door. Once you have your headphones in and your music on, everything else falls into place.