Because my run is my drug...

The 12 Steps of Runners Anonymous
by John Farrow

1. We admit that we are powerless over our character flaw and that our lives seem to others to have become unmanageable, but we sort of like it that way.

2. We have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity, and that power’s name is Runner’s High.

3. We have made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the pursuit of the perfect Runner’s High and to travel near and far in our quest for the perfect race and a new PR.

4. We have made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves, and find that we need to increase the mileage on our long runs, intersperse our training with fartleks and tempo runs, do a track workout now and then to increase our speed, add cross-training to our weekly routine and always get enough carbs in our diet.

5. We have admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our
shortcomings that we have occasionally taken a day off from training, indulged in fried foods, failed to consume at least eight servings of pasta per day, failed to use the most up-to-date heart rate monitor and that our fridge contains nothing but
beer and running shoes.

6. We are not entirely ready to have all of these character flaws removed until we qualify for Boston one more time.

7. We humbly ask others to lighten up and get off our case with respect to our character flaws so that we can go out for another run.

8. We have made a list of all persons we have harmed and are willing to make amends to them when and if they find the time to accompany us during our weekly 20-mile run.

9. We have made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would interfere with our training.

10. We have continued to take personal inventory of all miles run on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly basis according to each shoe worn, as well as to constantly monitor our heart rate, respiration, fluid consumption and leg turn-over rate during our runs and when we were wrong have promptly taken the necessary steps to get
back on track.

11. We have sought through visualization to improve our running technique and ask only for strength and endurance when next we hit the wall.

12. We have had an awakening as a result of these steps and have redoubled our training as we have tried to carry this message to non-runners everywhere and to practice these principles throughout our training.

ARR News, May 2002
Albuquerque Road Runners Club