My Love Affair with My Couch

When you think of a “marathoner” what adjectives come to mind? Maybe someone who’s healthy, runs countless miles, and generally maintains a very “fit” lifestyle, right? We’re active, energetic—I’ll even go as far as to say pretty enthusiastic people. Or maybe I’m just thinking of myself and my running buddies. I don’t know. But what I do know is that we are not, by definition, considered to be “lazy” people. How can someone who has run a number of marathons, is always training for a race of some kind, and regularly puts in 10+ mile long runs every weekend be considered LAZY?

Oh, it’s possible. And that would be me. The laziest marathoner you will ever meet.

When I am not training for a race, or out running mile after mile around the city, I can often be found having what I fondly refer to “my couch time.”

Given the chance, I can sleep for 12, 14, even 16 hours at a time. I love waking up, eating a large bowl of cereal or oatmeal, and going right back to bed with a book, only to fall back to sleep two pages later.

I am also able to consume hours of crap on TV—from home decoration shows, to horrible reality TV, to whatever Anderson Cooper would like to talk about, and if it’s Shark Week--fuhgetaboutit.

When all this mind-numbing TV makes me tired, I will simply walk over to the bedroom, snuggle up with the latest issue of Running Times, and take a nap.

My favorite outfit? You guessed it—pajamas (the pink ones).

Sometimes, especially while training with a group, I was forced to wake up at ungodly hours, (as early as 6AM!) to join the team for a long run. I would set two alarms and somehow manage to break free from the block of concrete that was magically laid on top of me overnight.

Alright, granted, not every weekend is entirely devoted to long bouts of “couch time” temporarily interrupted by a long run. Believe it or not, I am capable of leaving the apartment to go shopping, go to the store, run errands, etc. During the week, I walk 2 miles to and from work every day (see earlier post about my hatred for the public transportation system), on top of the daily training runs and track workouts.

But oh, how I love, love, love spending the weekend with my couch, my two warm puppies sleeping next to me, a good book within arm’s reach, and monopoly over the remote control (a stocked fridge never hurts either).