Thou Shalt Not Judge

I think this was one of the first lessons and the most important that I have learned from running. It's easy to look down on someone running the same roads you run without knowing anything about them. Running is gaining in popularity and it seems there are more runners out there all the time.

It's easy to be smug as I pass another runner on the road. Somehow I think I am better than them because I just left them in my dust. (that doesn't really happen much!) But you can't really tell much about a runner that you pass on your route. They may be running their first mile ever; or they may be cooling down from a 20 miler!

It's totally irrelevant to your run if they are pouring with sweat or not! They aren't going where you are going and the chances are good that they are not training for the same reasons you began your own. You really just can't tell.

There is no way to tell where they are on their journey. It could be their first season or their fiftieth! And there's no way to know what they are dealing with on the inside. It was through great stress and pain that I found running to begin with.. and it is no less present even as I run today!

To me this is a great life lesson. It is true on and off the running circuit. We really are in no position to judge another person's journey. We seriously have no idea what it is like to walk in their life's shoes and how we would deal with similar situations. It's not fair to judge them or to place undue expectations on ourselves based on something we really know nothing about!

Don't judge - just run!

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