What motivates you to run? My methods are a little strange I guess.

Let me clarify: Running for most people including and especially me is NOT something I enjoy. I get that there are people out there that claim to genuinely love it but I think those people are a rarity to a very high degree.

I run because I know that if I do not, the irresponsible portions of my life are going to get the best of me and I will return to my previous bulbous self where I was more than 230 lbs even though my optimal weight given my height and bone density is around 175 lbs. I run because I like to drink beer and eat pizza and while I do know that it isn't possible to out exercise a bad diet, it certainly helps a bit. Could I do better? Of course I could, but i am unwilling to give up the things that I enjoy most in life: Good food and great times with friends over cold beer.

I do run, and when I do so it is sometimes difficult to stay motivated when doing so. I have some unusual tactics to motivate myself when doing to that perhaps other people do as well.

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For one thing, I hate running on treadmills and refuse to do so. I really don't like it. The idea behind running for me is of course to stay i shape (sorta) but at the same time I do enjoy taking in some scenery but then again, I live in an urban environment so that isn't always easy to accomplish or get motivated to do.

For one thing, the hardest part about going for a run isn't the actual activity itself, but rather, getting out out the door with my shoes laced up. The rest is quite easy in comparison.

Like most people I get bored and want to give up but rather than doing so I will select something, anything in the distance and be like "ok, just don't stop until you get to that statue up there" and once I arrive at said thing in the distance I normally am back in my stride and just choose yet another thing in the distance and make the challenge to myself again. Normally, I find that while I do slow down my tempo depending on what I have eaten, how hot it is etc., I tend to keep going.

The other day I decided to do a 10k and conditions were perfect: It as overcast but not raining and the temperature was ideal (for me.)

My apologies for the horrible resolution on that but for some reason Strava didn't want to play nice with the screen capture and I'm pretty sure you can see what is going.

My pace is not great, but it has improved over time and these days I just aim for a sub 6min km.

You can see that I maintain this pace until I get to 5k because that is when I take a break, get a water from a street vendor, and then walk fast rather than run for about 200 meters. I was happy that I was able to maintain this pace but I continued to carry o using my tactic of selecting something in the distance and promising myself that I will not stop until I reach it.

Something happened towards the end because I am a 5k guy, not a 10k guy and I really started to lose steam towards the end when another accidental tactic happened to me: Someone passed me and was moving a lot faster than me.

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The fact that she was extremely attractive was just an added bonus and no, i was not perving on her and this is not a photo of her but since she was moving a lot faster than me and "left me in the dust" so to speak this competition that she was unaware she was involved in was the motivation I needed to round out my 10k run at just the right moment because I knew I was nearly finished. It brought me great joy when I realized that her fast pace was not her real pace because after about 500 meters she totally stopped and I passed her and now I had a new goal: Maintain this pace for the remainder of my 10k.

You can see on my splits that I encountered this girl during my worst per km time that I had one aside from my rest and I ended up finishing strong with the best per km time I had for the entire run.

We all pull motivation from various places and I wonder if other people use other, similar objectives when they go for a run?

Just for the record I later went on a much smaller run of 3k after having about 11 beers with pals that afternoon. That per km time was not the best but again my motivation for doing so was simply because my friends said I couldn't do it! I do enjoy a challenge!