Back in Action. #PorkBuns

Well, friends. It's been quite some time, hasn't it? I've taken a bit of a blogging break post-Boston to allow myself a bit of a re-boot.

Three marathons in 15 months justifies that, I think.

I also needed to spend some time being a little more introspective rather than....outro...spective?

This blog was started as a fundraising tool back in 2011, but also as a bit of an accountability tool. It was a, "Can Meredith actually do this?" exercise in writing. Three years later, we know the answer, and it is a resounding HELL YES, I CAN AND I DID! Which is awesome. But it does lend itself to a rather large dilemma when it comes to my little RunMeriGRun blog.

While I run a lot and do have a lot of experience with the running, I am not a running expert or coach. And while I take a lot of classes and always strive to get stronger and more in shape, I am not one to be doling out advice on the subject. And, my god, I am DECIDEDLY not an expert on healthy living (cue my lunch today: pork buns, nachos and bloody marys).

When I started running it was all, like, haha! This is hilarious! That girl thinks she can run marathons!

Now...welp...not so funny. Because it's happening. In real time.

Do people really want to read about my 16-mile runs again? And my marathon trainings and races again? I mean, maybe, sure, because I'm damn hilarious. But, god...sometimes I even gross myself out. And, even if you're not repelled by me, admittedly this whole thing becomes a bit repetitive to read once it becomes part of "normal" lifestyle (whatever "normal" is for a marathon runner). And that repetitiveness not only applies to the reader, but also to the writer.

So that's a very long-winded way for me to say: What the heck should I write about? And, if we go even deeper, should I even keep writing at all?

Well the answer to the second part is clear. Yes, I'd like to keep writing. I enjoy this little augmentation of my running world. I enjoy looking back and I enjoy the awkwardness that ensues when I see someone I haven't seen in decades who can say to me, "So...um...I'd ask how you are...but I think I read it? On your blog?" Delightfully weird.

But to the former question. I actually think I still have a lot to contribute in terms of my point of view. Running has profoundly changed me over the past five or so years. It's taught me more about myself than any other activity I have ever taken a part of. Running has bonded me closer to existing friends, and it has opened the doors to so many amazing wonderful new ones. It has provided me a social outlet. It's a therapy session. It's made me stronger so that I can do more and different activities that I may have never thought possible (considering that to the end of time I will think of myself as the chubby kid picked last in gym class). And, crucially, running now and forever the only way I have found to long-term sustain my pork buns and nachos lifestyle. Which I will defend to my death.

A lot has been going on in my fitness slash running world the past few months. I have signed up for my 15th and 16th Half Marathons this coming September and October. I have joined a new, wonderful, weird, amazing group called November Project that I'm sure you've seen all over my Facebook feed (and which will be the topic of an upcoming post to be sure...so STAY TUNED).

This is not a healthy living blog. (Unless to you, too, believe that "health" means your one serving of vegetables for the day came in the form of the celery dipped into your bloody mary?) This will never be a healthy living blog. I'm not sure if I even recommend everything I espouse and a nutritionist would have damn heart attack.

I work out a lot. I run all the damn time. I'm going to continue to do fun races. To fundraise (get what I did there?) for causes I believe in. I'm going to be weird. I'm going to post gifs (because they rule) and probably talk about my cat too much.

This blog is not just MeriG Running. This is now about how running has become one in the same with MeriG. It's now just part of my DNA in a way I honestly never, ever, in a million years would have said it would have. Just ask the kids who picked me last in gym class.

This is me.

Hope you still enjoy. :)