I walked in and caught my family watching curling.

The Olympics are wrapping up and, like always, I’d been watching sports I never follow the other three years. Curling fits that category. If you don’t know the sport, teams slide 40-pound stones down a sheet of ice toward a bullseye, trying to block or knock the opponent’s stones away. Think bocce ball — but on ice and somehow much harder. My first reaction was immediate.

“Curling isn’t a sport. What are you watching?”

To me, it looked more like a game. Something closer to cornhole than hockey or skiing. 

Ten minutes later I was still on the couch.

I watched the American skipper send a stone curling like a banana through a gap that didn’t exist and land perfectly on the button. I watched teammates sprint beside it, sweeping the ice furiously while sliding and hopping around other stones without falling. I can barely walk down my icy driveway in winter. Okay. This was clearly a sport. And I felt a little silly for dismissing it so quickly.

People say the same thing about running. To many people, running looks like a hobby. Exercise. Something you do to stay in shape, not competition. Not a “real” sport. We know better.

They don’t see the training plans, the early mornings, the workouts that leave you bent over with your hands on your knees. The long runs that stretch for miles. The races, the PRs, and the more frequent disappointments that keep you coming back anyway.

You may not be in the Olympics. But if effort defines an athlete, you sound like one to me.

Best wishes on chasing your running goals,
George