11 running secrets your girlfriend never told you

Running is absolutely a great sport for your physical and mental health. But in more than 10 years, it has never been running alone that I’ve lost weight on. Only when I focus on nutrition, eliminating processed food and eating lots of vegetables, nuts and other whole foods does the scale budge. 

 

That’s right girls, your "girls" will be the first to go if you do lose weight while running.

 

Your girlfriend suckered you in by telling you all you needed was a pair of shoes. Which is true. But soon you will covet cute running shirts, socks, bras, tights, capris, jackets, headbands, skirts, hats, armbands and dresses. Oh, and there are race fees too.

 

I confirmed with a few other women, that once they upped their mileage to prepare for half marathons or more, their hair started to fall out. The bottom of my shower looks like it did eight weeks postpartum.

 

My husband is begging me to get a pedicure because of how scary my feet look. It’s taken quite a while for this protective layer of calluses to build up. Also, I have earned my first two black toenails and I need to keep an eye on them (oh, and brag too).

 

No, not today. But you will dream about it.

 

You’ll have a lovely honeymoon phase, then wake up one morning cursing the friend that introduced running to you. You’ll run when you don’t want to — and you may not even enjoy that run. But you will run, because sometimes it’s the only thing that will get you through a stressful day. Or give you an excuse to eat three pieces of birthday cake.

 

You’ll pass on late nights and adult beverages because you have a long run the next morning. You’ll have friends that don’t understand that you may even lose touch with — kind of like when you had kids and lost touch with your friends that remained childless. But you will find a new world of people that, if possible, are more obsessed with running that you are.

 

Like wear a running skirt with matching knee-high compression socks, drink chicken broth instead of Gatorade, run barefoot, sing out loud in front of strangers, register for a triathlon and pee outside.

 

Depending on how many children you’ve had, this might happen more often than you care to publicly admit. Sometimes you might pee your pants on purpose. Nope, not that I'd ever know anything about peeing my pants while running. *wink*