I Am Not Runner

Today I was driving home from a fun and filling (by way of chile verde and enchiladas) baby shower for a sweet friend of mine who is having a baby girl!  It was peaceful and warm.  Fortunately, they had a giant tree that provided a lot of shade, which made the "warm" and muggy day bearable, to the point of pleasant.  In any case, as I was driving home, I saw a gal running.  It was 2 o'clock, undoubtedly one of the warmer parts of the day and she was running!  At first I thought she was perhaps a show off, but I realized with a second look that she looked like a pretty serious runner.  She wasn't wearing anything flashy, no gaudy makeup, hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail; it was clear that she was running for... you guessed it, exercise!  The idea that she was running in this suffocating, humid, ninety-something degree weather for exercise was actually more shocking to me, since I, myself, am not a runner.

I don't know what that kind of dedication to running feels like.  I THINK about running more than just a quick sprint across a parking lot and my lungs begin to hurt and my head starts to spin.  No joke!  Just typing those words has exhausted me!  In any case, it got me thinking about what kind of person would be so serious about running so as to do it under these grueling conditions.  Immediately my mind filled with the word RUNNER.  Hmmmm... it seemed like a simple answer, but was it really?  To give that woman the title of Runner, would mean that there would be others that lacked that title.  I started to wonder why she wouldn't choose to run on a treadmill in the air conditioned, T.V. infused environment of a gym, there's a pretty nice one nearby.  A thought began to build and become more clear, if she was unwilling to run in the rain or the heat or the humidity, she would NOT be a Runner.  Interesting.  I don't know what the word is for people that only run on a treadmill or occasionally outside when the weather is ideal, but it is not Runner.  

What is the point of this interesting topic?  Well, I began to consider what this meant for me.  Now, I'm DEFINITELY NOT a Runner, so that's not where I'm going with it.  What I began to consider is that if I exercise my faith only in the air conditioned, worship music infused environment of my church, perhaps I am not a Person of Faith.  I must be willing to walk in Faith when the conditions are miserable and ideal.  Otherwise, I may just be one of those girls that goes to the gym with a face full of makeup and cute work out clothes that simply walks on the treadmill for twenty minutes to have the appearance of something that she is not.  Hmmmm.... I guess I have to do some evaluating.