“The theme of today’s run is survival. Survival ... of the not so fittest.”
Erin Azar is running down a hot, busy street, filming herself on her long run, and to say the least, she is not feeling great.
This is not an uncommon theme in Erin’s videos: Running. Not Feeling Great. And somehow, she’s the most inspiring runner on TikTok. And for sure, the funniest.
Erin started running a few years ago when she realized she was losing her mind raising three children and working from home. She had tried and hated running in the past, but she was so freaking desperate to do something for herself. She filmed this first run, and she’s been filming every step, cry, dance move, and goofball hilarity since.
Here’s one of the best things Erin has taught me about running: When she has a bad run, she puts it in her “bad run bag.” When the run is over, she can’t think about it. It’s in the bad run bag. There is no wallowing, no self doubt, no anxious anticipation of the next run. The only time she is allowed to open up the bad run bag is on her next bad run, to put that new bad run in, and to remind herself, “Hey you idiot! Remember you did it last time, so no matter how bad it is this time, you can do it.”
The more I run, the more I realize how frequently I feel just terrible out there. Especially now that I actually enjoy walking as its own activity, I spend vast periods of my time running just wishing I was walking. But that would mean getting home in 3 hours instead of 1, so I keep running (with walk breaks sprinkled in). I’ve decided this is totally fine, and probably 50% of my time running will feel really hard. This isn’t because there’s something wrong with me, it’s because running is hard.
Running will always be hard, and that’s what bad run bags are for.
P.S. Listen to my interview with Erin on the Mind Over Miles podcast here!
Pic by Erin Azar