Running Gag Order

Big left this comment on my last post:

I have also officially started my "I only talk about my upcoming marathon" program. Unless you ask a question directly related to work, you will get a marathon answer. Thus far the results have been awesome.

I play a game with myself. It's the How Long Can I Go Without Mentioning Running? OR the Let's See If I Can Refrain From Mentioning Running At All Challenge.

Look, I know perfectly well not everyone (OK, maybe most people) has the slightest interest in hearing about my running adventures. That's part of the price we pay for being Obsessed Runners. We love and embrace our sport; other people (the "unenlightened") just...don't get it. I used to get the same reaction when I got all wound up about rocks and birds (well, let's face it-- I still get wound up about rocks and birds). Sighing, meaningful looks of there she goes again, eye-rolling, et cetera. You all know what I'm talking about. Thus, occasionally I make a (feeble) attempt at keeping the "I ran 20 miles this weekend" and the like (waxing about the loveliness of the latest Sugoi jacket, the stable of Garmin products, some unpleasantess involving one's lower GI tract) out of conversation, because, really, once you drop that bombshell on someone whose contribution to the Monday-morning "so, how was your weekend?" ritual at work was "sit on the couch and watch football," well, it's like hearing the proverbial record needle scratch and cricket chirp chorus as your listener tries to process the words "ran," "twenty," and "miles" which all appeared in the same sentence and were uttered by a person who looks not only well-rested but excited to have accomplished such a feat. And then you continue with a "...and not only that but I did it at an 8:38 average pace which is, you know, only one second slower than the pace I need to BQ and..."

...you see the person's eyes glaze over again, because for most people the letters "BQ" are missing a "B" and "BQ" must be some kind of truncated version of "BBQ" for the ultralazy ("BarbeQue," perhaps) but you barely notice, you're on a roll, going on and on about tapering, and carb-loading, and the merits of the various flavors of Gu (Chocolate Outrage all the way, babies) or the various options for midrace refueling in general, and what start corral you've put yourself in, but that was when you registered for the race (24 hours after registration opened in April, hooray for restraint, eh?) and back then you had no clue so you took a wild guess and entered "4:30" but now that's been thrown out the window because you so totally rocked your 20-mile run at an 8:38 pace...

...and, yeah.

Yeah, so. Uh...what did you do this weekend besides watch football?

Anyway, I'm trying, I'm really trying not to completely overwhelm non-running friends, family, and co-workers with all this running blather. It's desperately difficult, however, especially with the marathon so close at hand.

I should just succumb to the inevitable and adopt Big's "all marathon all the time" plan. It would make things so much easier.