....but you don't look like a runner!

Driving home from work this morning in my post night shift haze I was struck by what a beautiful morning it was.  Its not often we are blessed with such beautiful sunrises and warm days in October so I thought it would be a perfect morning to go for a run, after all I had an hour to kill before I got into bed whilst I washed the kids swimming costume for their lesson tonight.  I mentally plotted my route deciding on the cycle path in our village which is approx a mile long so there and back would be a nice short run to ease me back into things, plus I was still aching like mad from my previous 4 miler.

I arrived home looking forward to my run (i know, it surprised me too), chucked the swimming kits in the wash and got changed.  As I opened the door to leave I suddenly had a crisis of confidence.  It's been a long time since I went out for a run......5 years in fact.  I don't actually look like a runner.  We have an almost constant stream of runners going along our road and I certainly don't "look" like any of them, perhaps the only thing we have in common is owning a pair of trainers.  

I closed the door, took the phone holder off my arm and skulked into the garage to switch on the treadmill.  3km later my washing had finished and I felt good about my run but it was soooo boring.  I thought back to when I trained for the Cardiff half in 2012 and I would run around the back roads on a sunny day, spotting buzzards sitting in hedges, being terrorised by a vicious Jack Russel (that thing could run!!!) and just lapping up those feels as I went.  It was much more interesting than looking at my washing going round and round and round and...your get the picture.
In simple terms I traded beautiful views like this...

for this......

What a muppet!!

I'm cross that I let these negative thoughts creep in and stop me from "going public".  I missed out on a beautiful morning, fresh air, country views just because I was worried about how people would view me running, and possibly how I view myself, after all, what does a runner look like?  It looks like someone putting one foot in front of the other, pushing themselves just out of their comfort zones and getting from A to B.  I guess what im trying to say is there are no hard or fast rules, no "uniform", no right and wrong.  Looks like I need to work on my mindset as well as my fitness and remember...