Fun Runs

       With the Cross Country season over, fall is a great time of year to go out and participate in some of your neighborhoods fun runs! Many communities have several throughout the year, and they are usually packed with runners of all levels, so they can be a very enjoyable, noncompetitive experience. After a season full of races and competition, many high school cross country runners may feel the need to be reminded why they run in the first place, because let’s face it, racing is anything but “fun”. That is why fun runs are a great way to get in touch with the joy that running can bring and allow us to immerse ourselves once again in the simplicity of exercising and running free without any expectations or obligations. 

        Two weekends ago, a few of my friends and I participated in our towns "Costume Run". This particular race has taken place for the past few years and is certainly not your average race, because all of the participants dress up in whatever creative costume their imagination can come up with to run in! We parade around downtown covered in makeup, wigs, and spooky cloths. We probably look like quite a spectacle to the uninformed, unsuspecting bystander! My friends and I dressed up as the Ninja Turtles (I was Michelangelo if you were wondering) and entered ourselves in the costume contest before the race, which we sadly did not win. Our day soon improved though as the race started and ended, and we were in first place! To be fair though, most of the participants were not there to compete and run, but that is the beauty of fun runs: all levels of runners are out together. Fun runs are also full of surprises and little tasks at every turn that one must complete before they can advance and are simply meant to get people to be active and enjoy themselves!

         I’ve said it several times and I’ll say it again, fun runs are created to be just that: Fun! This logic, though simple, can be quite refreshing to those of us who have spent the last 5 months of our lives training for the sole purpose of competition. We work to get our bodies in the best shape possible so that we can be as fast as possible, and that is not always an easy or pleasant task, which is why I find that it is vital to take the time to go out and run for pleasure every once in a while with no goal in mind of training or success.