For the love of running

I've made some decisions about running for now. On Friday I achieved my goal of running 50 miles in 4 weeks. But in achieving the goal, I lost sight of running for the fun of it. It became so goal-oriented and counting miles that it wasn't fun anymore. I developed "ritual clutter". I was almost unable to run unless I had my running hat, my iPod, my Nike + iPod chip, my headphones, my water bottle, my armband to hold my iPod, etc. I didn't like it. Running was freedom, but I had boggled myself down with my "stuff" and my rituals. On top of these, I was driving myself to get the miles in, so I injured parts of my feet and my left shin. So, for now, I am dropping the goal-oriented running and I'm just gonna run when I want to, with or without all my gear. I'm still going to log my runs, because I've kept track of my runs since the beginning of 2001. But I won't run just to get the miles in. I'll run for the love of running. I'll run free.