I find this is a hard question to answer; I have been trying to get my thoughts in a written form that make sense. It has proved elusive. But I found two EXCELLENT answers this week from books I am reading. I agree with their points and I am simply going to insert the long quotes and use them for my answer:
“Running is a brutal and emotional sport. It’s also a simple, primal sport. As humans, on the most basic level, we get hungry, we sleep, we yearn for love, we run. Just watch small children left to play unsupervised. They can’t stop running. It is part of what makes us human.
Perhaps it is to fulfill this primal urge that runners and joggers get up every morning and pound the streets in cities all over the world. To feel the stirring of something primeval deep down in the pits of our bellies. To feel ‘a little bit wild.’ Running is not exactly fun. Running hurts. It takes effort. Ask any runner why he runs, and he will probably look at you with a wry smile and say; ‘I don’t know.’ But something keeps up going. We may obsess about our PB’s [personal best’s] and mileage count, but these things alone are not enough to get us out running. We could find easier ways to chart and measure things. We could become accountants. No, the times and charts are merely carrots we dangle in front of our rational mind, our overanalytical brain, to give it a reason to come along for the ride. What really drives us is something else, this need to feel human, to reach below the multitude of layers of roles and responsibilities that society has placed on us, down below the company name tags, and even father, husband, son labels, to the pure, raw human being underneath. At such moments, our rational mind becomes redundant. We move from thought to feeling.
Except our mind doesn’t just stop. Many runners say that they become aware of their thoughts when they run. All day our thoughts churn away, turning us this way and that, but this doesn’t bother us in the slightest. Yet the minute we start moving away from its carefully constructed world of reason, into the wild heart of existence, our mind panics. Our thoughts try to pull us back, to slow us down. But like the marathon monks of Mount Hiei in Japan, who complete one thousand ultra marathons in one thousand days in search of enlightenment, if we push on, we begin to feel a vague, tingling sense of who, or what we really are. It’s a powerful feeling, strong enough to have us coming back for more, again and again.
Love too, connects us with a primal feeling deep within us, far from the realm of reason, which is why Paula [Radcliffe’s] chant [‘I love you Isla’ about her baby daughter used to win NYC Marathon] worked. The love she felt for her daughter and the raw emotion of running came from the same source. Evoking love helped push her on, even though rationally it shouldn’t have made any difference. Her daughter couldn’t hear her internal chant, and even if she could, at nine months old she was oblivious to the whole concept of marathon running. But by calling on such a strong emotion, Paula was able to bypass such reasoning. Her rational brain, which was telling her, no doubt, to slow down, was overcome.”
Adharanand Finn
Running with the Kenyans, Chapter 20
“Pretend I am a person who can only see the world in black-and-white. Now imagine you need to explain to me what the color blue looks like. How would you do it?
That is exactly what it is like trying to explain running to a nonrunner. Being a runner is like being able to see the color blue. When two people share these common experiences, they do not need to talk about them or try to describe them in words. But without common experience, it is difficult for me, or any other runner, to help you understand why we are so passionate about this sport. If you really want answers, you need to become a runner and develop color vision.”
“Becoming a runner and sharing in this common experience is not as easy as simply lacing up your shoes one day and going for a run. It is a journey that can take some time and determination as your body adjusts to this new activity. It is a rite of passage every runner must go through to unlock the secret all runners share, but I cannot describe it in words any better than you can describe the color blue. Once the secret is unlocked, a new level and depth of understanding emerges.”
“Put yourself in the shoes of many people when they first start running. Every step hurts. Every stride is pain. Your knees hurt. Your lower back aches. During your runs, your chest feels constricted. Even something as natural as breathing causes you discomfort. None of your body’s systems seem to be working together. They are in constant conflict and discord as the heart races, the breathing is strained, and the muscles rebel, burn, and feel heavy. After your runs, as you count the new blisters on your feet, you feel as if you’ve been hit by a truck. The conventional wisdom that running is not fun seems truer than ever. ‘How can people do this for fun?’ begs a painfully obvious answer: They can’t! But if you continue to run and resist all common sense and logic to quit, one day, something magical happens. One day while on a run, you notice that running does not hurt. Not only does it not hurt, but it feels natural and easy. Your legs feel powerful and strong. Your breath, heartbeat, and muscles have found a rhythm and harmony working together in perfect balance. You get a sense that this is what humans were meant to do, and you feel a connection to your primitive ancestors, as if you have discovered what you were always meant to be. On that day, you have finally reached the top of the mountain, and lived for a moment in the runner’s reality. On that day, you unlocked the secret to a new understanding, just as the person who has never seen in color opens her eyes to see the color blue. You have had an experience that can never be taken away. Finally, you get it. Finally, you see and comprehend what all the fuss is about.”
“Why do we run? Running is the gift we give ourselves. Like most things worth doing, running is hard, making the fruits of our labor intensely sweet and profoundly satisfying. We run because running allows us to live in a reality where we develop a sense of enthusiasm with what others might call mundane. It is a reality that reveals the world, our bodies, and our minds to us with the same sense of wonder and discovery as seen through the eyes of a child.”
“This is the difference between a pastime and a passion. I like to play golf, but I am not a golfer. I like to cook, but I am not a chef. I don’t just like to run. I am a runner. It is a passion. It is part of who I am and is woven into the fabric of my personality, character, and psyche. People who run to lose weight, to meet a standard for the military, or for any other purpose beyond running itself are still running but more as a pastime than as a passion. Passionate runners run because they love the feeling of running in their legs and chest. They run because running flows from their pores as easily as sweat. They chase faster times, longer runs, and better workouts for intrinsic reasons that transcend any extrinsic benefit. They run because an internal force inside of them drives them to test their limits. They run because in running, they are in the moment, in flow, living a life they chose. Runners might be losing weight, lowering their blood pressure, avoiding diabetes, and getting in their recommended daily allowance of exercise, but these are happy by-products of their passion for the activity itself. There is nothing wrong with people who run as a pastime any more than with people who play golf or people who cook as pastimes. In fact, the runner, golfer, and chef appreciate the people who run, golf, and cook as pastimes because the ‘pastime people’ have a greater understanding of what it takes to be good at a chosen passion. They get a glimpse of the life without fully living it. But people who run merely as a pastime do not share the same understanding of what it means to be a runner. Even on my worst days, when running is not fun, or when I have to force myself to get out of bed and out the door, I am still a runner. It is still me!”
“It is the exact opposite to a drug addiction. Drug habits are easy to start, but people have to check themselves into rehab clinics to stop. Running is a drug where the stopping is easy. Getting hooked is the hard part. Runners who have fallen from the grace of their own health need to enter rehab and work like the devil to get back on the running drug.”
Goucher & Catalano
Running the Edge
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