Why do I run?

Why Do I run?

It is such a difficult question to answer. There may be one answer or many. I believe it is best to begin when it all started.

My seventh grade year in school was anything but luxury and sparkles. Depression. Dread. Low self-esteem. But during a run something became unlocked. The physical education teacher would tell us to run eight laps, which is equivalent to two miles, and on occasions the one-mile. I was not the fastest, but there was a rush, a beauty and a pleasure.

“There's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time.”

-- Christopher McDougall from Born to Run

I wanted to run. I wanted to beat other people. Submit them to my speed and endurance. These were my feelings when I first started running in seventh grade. I found pleasure in such competition. But now as I run it is much more subtle. A great runner not only rises from desire to defeat, but also from the desire to achieve. I will no longer be pushed by my problems. I may use them as a fuel, but by no means shall they push me around. Instead I will be led by my dreams, for the desire and hope to run comes from deep within your heart and not from the problems which reside outside of you.

"An athlete cannot run with money his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head." -- Emil Zatopek, one of the greatest distance runners of his time

Many miles and I have not come to a clear cut answer to why I run. All I know is that I love to run. It is possibly the passion and desire to do so. Maybe it could be Christopher McDougall's explanation: We run in order to escape danger; we run because we fell in love; we run with our lover; we were born to run; we were born because we run. I believe happiness is not something that we arrive to, but it is the journey in which we partake. If so, then I have many more miles of happiness to come.