If you’re a new runner, or know someone who is...or even if you are a runner who has packed away your running shoes because you’re in some kind of a slump, or gave up running due to reasonable health reasons...I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. You’re not the first runner to quit, and you won’t be the last. I know, because I’ve been there...and todays epsiode of Phedippidations is a shout of encouragement...it’s my attempt to say to you that even if you’ve hung up your shoes: you’re not a quitter. Stop thinking of your running in terms of that. Whatever your goals are..whatever the reason it was that made you first lace up your shoes...they’re still valid reasons; the only thing you really have to do is change those short term goals into long term goals...and recognize the signs of improvement. You really are, a runner. Sometimes we don’t feel that way, sometimes we feel like giving up, crawing into our darkened subterrainan dens and disassociating ourselves from that aweful activity...but if we can think it through clearly, and unwrinkle our damaged souls...we’ll all realize that we have evolved to be runners, and that happiness can be found in accepting that truth and becoming what we were meant to be.