Because I love how it makes me feel.

Today is National Running Day, something that was not lost on all my running buddies. Chances are we would have been out running anyway but it was really nice to see a lot of Facebook status updates and Tweets mentioning National Running Day.

So, why do you run? If you are like any of my running pals you would have said things like, “It makes me happy” or “Because I can” or “It makes me feel alive.”

We all know that running is cheapest drug out there and way much better than therapy. I’ve certainly written about this before and so have many others. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you run, it makes you feel better. We’ll just ignore the days that it hurts.

Even on days when it feels as though I’m running through a pool of molasses I always feel better for having ran. There’s nothing like the feeling of a good hard workout and the sweat and heavy breathing that follows.

Yes, we are a little crazy for running in extreme weather. We are not wimps. If you haven’t run outside when it is 15 degrees and snowing you are the wimp. The same goes for logging 18 mile long runs in August.

While growing up playing soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis our punishment whenever we did something wrong was running. I hated it. Now I laugh whenever I see that t-shirt that says, “My sport is your sport’s punishment.”

Runners are hard core and we have our own day to prove it.