TWO WORDS: HOT. YOGA.

I've always wanted to be a "yoga person."

Over the years, I've attended a few classes here and there and usually found myself unable to quiet my mind. I was always looking around at other people to see if I was doing the pose wrong, or glancing at the clock - wondering how much longer until I could leave and do all the things I needed to do.

And I never understood how people made yoga their "exercise." For me, if you weren't pounding your body into the ground until you were sweaty and breathless, it wasn't exercise. No sir, none of that pansy-ass lotus shit for me, thanks.

Somehow though, I was intrigued enough to try a class of Bikram yoga and holy shit - I am in love! And I think I know why it's taken me this long to "get" yoga. I think that training for and running a marathon taught me how to focus.

Out there by myself on those 20 mile training runs, I learned the importance of focus; of the communication between mind and body. Getting through miles 18-24 of the marathon - post-wall - wanting nothing more than to lie down in the street... it was all focus. Mind and body.

This is Bikram yoga: 100+ degrees for 90 minutes. 26 poses, 2 times each [26.2].

I sweat in a way I have never sweat before. And although it's the same 26 poses every class, each class presents a new challenge. It's about getting your mind out of wherever it's been, and becoming present in the now.

And sweating.

Now I get it. Now not only can I call myself a Runner, I have also become a Yoga Person.