In honor of all my runnerd friends tackling Chicago Marathon this weekend, some musings on how to tell if you’re a runnerd. Feel free to add more in the comments.
You might be a runnerd if:
- you read back issues of Runner’s World instead of watching political debates
- work, cocktail party, or Saturday night movie, you’re sporting compression underneath
- you can name at least three different models of Garmins and explain their features
- you check out other people’s shoes when running
- your shoe choice for any given run could be expressed as an algebraic formula, with variables based on distance, pace and weather
- you have lucky socks
- you can do pace calculations in your head
- your ears perk up at the words “race weekend”
- you have a Race Expo strategy
- you can cogently explain the implications of a heel strike vs midfoot vs forefoot
- you aren’t on a diet, you’re just trying to get to your race weight
- you know the difference between gun time and chip time
- you can discuss the benefits and drawbacks of Garmin, Nike Plus, RunKeeper and Polar
- your social life gets planned around your race calendar
- you always have a stash of BodyGlide
- when researching vacation destinations, you search for races first, hotels second
- Watching the Spirit of the Marathon makes you emotional
- Watching Hood to Coast makes you more emotional (and then gets you thinking about who you want on your relay team)
- BioFreeze, Salonpas, KT Tape: yup, you know what those are
- And, of course, you’re probably a #runnerd if you’ve ever used the hashtag #runnerd.
Good luck to all the #runnerds racing this weekend!
Outside the Comfort Zone 
Love these, especially the one about planning races before vacation places.
By: Andrea on October 8, 2011
at 10:37 am
I just did that last week! My husband and I are planning a West Coast weekend away, so did I search for interesting museum exhibits? No, I checked the Runners World race calendar.
By: Sue Gelber on October 8, 2011
at 12:08 pm
You might be a single runnerd on the prowl when you ask guys “What is your marathon PR?”
By: Chanthana on October 8, 2011
at 11:20 am
And then you stalk him on Athlinks.
By: Sue Gelber on October 8, 2011
at 12:05 pm
YES
By: Chanthana on October 8, 2011
at 8:28 pm
I totally did that to a girl at work. We talked about her running and then I asked her what her PR is.
I started planning vacations around races or epic training runs.
By: Markemmanuel (@markemmanuel) on October 8, 2011
at 5:31 pm
You get all giddy at the phrase “#runnerds #tweetup”
You’re not shy to talk about chafing in public. In fact, you probably start the conversation.
By: David Pittman (@DP_Turtle) on October 8, 2011
at 5:32 pm
[…] The term Runnerd came to mind, but I did a good search and found that the term is very popular: There’s a Facebook Group, it’s a popular Twitter Hashtag, and websites describing the symptoms of being a Runnerd. […]
By: Blog Name? « paulradcliffe.ca on July 20, 2012
at 2:35 pm