Am I a "real" runner...?

That which caught my eye

   The other day as I was rooting around on Google Images, I ran across one of those humourous "postcard" type images and immediately had it catch my eye.
   It did so because I am currently in the middle of passing on little tidbits about my new running adventure and I've already started to wonder whether I'm telling people about stuff they won't give a damn about. Assuming they even read it.
   I've certainly stopped short of doing a training blog and I make almost no mention of running on Facebook, apart from posting links to the blog itself. So I think I'm doing okay.
   I don't mind if people know I'm a "rookie", I go out of my way to describe myself as a neophyte, so no big deal there. Right at the moment, this whole running thing is so new to me that I keep having these holy cow moments as I go along, self-discovering. The urge, then, is to write about them. Hence, I don't have copious amounts of gear or training information, I can't talk about all the different places I've run in, and I can't talk about all the innovative training techniques I've run across. About as much as I am able to talk about are my first fumbling steps, or strides, as it were.
   Right at the moment, it's a little difficult to see where I might be with my running in, let's say, a year from now. Presently, all I'm trying to do is get myself to where I can run 5K without dropping dead. My goal is to run a 5K race at the end of December, the Resolution Run. After that, if I've not lost any digits to the cold, I will need to decide where to go from there with my running.
   Since starting to hit the streets regularly back at the beginning of August, I've certainly felt better. There's a little more spring in my step and I've lost about ten pounds. I can think of no reason to stop running. Whether or not I "graduate" to 10K is hard to say. Right now, running 5K is a hell of a workout, both energy and time-wise, and it feels as though it might be enough. We'll have to see.

Question answered!

    I'm still hard-pressed to call myself a "real" runner. I get out and run every other day, regardless of the weather or my inclination at the time. I look forward to run days and am somewhat at loose ends on my days off. I enjoy reading about running and visiting running stores. Does all this make me a "real" runner? I'm not sure. Part of it is because I have never encountered a definition for "real".
   I occasionally run into other runners as I am out and about. They almost always look like "real" runners--this by the way they dress, more than anything. At this point, I don't think I look like a "real" runner but, at the same time, I am not running to be fashionable. I run consistently and, right at the moment, I run the same route every time. This takes me past the local Tim's. I have this fantasy that there's a couple of regular customers in there who, because of my routine combined with their routine, have noticed me streaking by on occasion. In my fantasy, one person says to the other, "Hey, there's that old guy out there again." The other person replies, "Man, I guess he must be a real runner!"