Every runner comes across them – the Run Naysayers: usually couch potatoes with an insatiable curiosity about what it is that makes us “need” to run.
They’re filled with suspicion, determined to uncover some sort of deep-seated psychological disturbance we’re hiding, and convinced that our running is a means of fleeing from some sort of horror from our past.
Why do you run, they ask. Do you need to run? When will you stop running?
And then the classic, what are you running from?
Only runners know the real answer to those questions:
We run because we can.
We run because we love it.
We can run practically anywhere, anytime - just pull on the shoes and we're out there.
It’s as simple as that.
Running gives us joy, it energises us, it gives us perspective.
Best of all, it makes us feel alive!
We know the truth: life’s too short to not run.
(But then if you’re reading this blog, you already know that!)
Running is about so much. How about the exhilaration of conquering a tough uphill; the natural high we feel after a long run; the buzz of feeling fit; the joy of sharing a trot with a group of friends; the buzz of getting to work feeling 100% alive after an early morning run (and knowing that the others in the office aren’t likely to understand – they’re still half asleep at the coffee machine); the satisfaction of seeing improvement and achieving time/distance goals; and the knowledge that every hour spent enjoying a run is 60 minutes lived more enriched.
I reckon there’s only one answer to the naysayer’s question: it’s not what we’re running FROM... it’s what we’re running TO that counts!
