[Imagine the Rocky theme in your head]

I just wrapped up week 5 of my renewed exercise campaign. My forty-and-fabulous campaign. Although I'm fairly certain I will reach forty-one before I reach fabulous. But then I will just change the campaign slogan to forties-and-fabulous. Either way, it's a goofy slogan.

Much to my own surprise, my exercise of choice these past weeks has been ... running. (Stop laughing, Dad.)

Now why would I go and do a thing like that? I wasn't sure myself the answer to this question. But then I recognized that I happen to be surrounded by a particularly wacky group of people - let's call them runners. People who run even though there is absolutely nothing chasing them.

I live with one. I am married to one of these runners. He likes running. For real. In fact, he likes it so much that he has signed up to run the Austin marathon. Again. He's looking forward to it. Wacky, right?

My sister-in-law is also a runner. I've never explicitly asked her, but I'm pretty sure she likes it, too. She runs marathons. Plural. In many ways, I want to be like her - because she is very cool. Today is her birthday. And what did she do on this day, her birthday? Yeah, she ran. Dear Sheila, you are an inspiration to me.

I am also related by blood to one of these people. My brother. He runs. In fact, you could say that the man is a veritable running fool (right, Dad?) But he's the kind of runner I can really relate to. The kind of runner who looked at me on the eve of his running the half-marathon and said, with a sigh and a pained expression on his face, "I hate running." But did that stop him? No way - the man ran his 13.1 miles, and then threw down some DoubleDave's.

So, you may say it was inevitable that I would be drawn into this insanity. Peer pressure. The need to belong. The desire to be a contender in the annual Villa Sabine Mini-Triathlon (oh yeah!)

But here's the really weird part: I like it. Maybe not the running per se, but there definitely is something about it that is very nearly enjoyable. It could be the challenge, the solitude, the endorphins, the satisfaction of reaching of a limit and then pushing past it, the almost imperceptible thing called progress.

Yeah, I like it.