I'm Not A Runner...

I’M NOT A RUNNER!!

It’s a line I have said for years. I would cringe when I heard people and coaches in the gym say “ask Seán for advice, he’s a runner”. “I run but I’m not a runner”, I usually replied with.

But even I have to admit that I’ve come a long way since the picture on the second slide. That was my first run towards my first marathon. Rocking a pair of Jordan’s while listening to Rocky music, I went as fast as I could to get that 5k PB. A week later I was a minute slower going for the same 5k as fast as I could. I most definitely didn’t consider myself a runner.

I won’t even wear the marathon t-shirt from my abysmal (there’s a word for me!) attempt at my first marathon later that year. Coming in a full hour and 3 minutes after my intended 4 hour goal. Not a runner.

I failed that goal again the following year by 10 minutes. Despite running continuously for the entire run, I didn’t feel like a runner after that either. I felt broken.

In 2019, I finally got under 4 hours. Still not a runner in my mind… but happen to run.

Over the years, I’ve still had that mentality despite having run a virtual marathon, trail runs, setting PBs that I’m more proud of this year in the 5k and 10k events and helping people build towards their running events. Hell, I even thought this went starting a running podcast with @anygiventrainingday !!

But now that I’ve completed 300km in a month (a huge thanks to people I have ran the extra miles to help get me there this month - especially the Saturday morning Run Club), I’ve graduated and am now a certified runner!!!

Delighted to announce that the official “I am a runner” cert is in the post and on its way out to me, ready to get get framed and proudly displayed.

Except it doesn’t really work like that.

There’s no cert. There’s no test from where you go from not a runner to a runner. There’s no particular event or running milestone that makes you a runner.

Despite the litany of mistakes I would make in my running journey since that first running selfie on Instagram back in 2017, as soon as I went on that very first run, I was a runner.

And that’s all it takes. Lacing up the runners and getting out there to run.